Standard
by yocozo
Summary: Kidnapped from Dawn Island at the age of seven and sold into slavery, Luffy had spent over five years of his life just trying to stay sane. Survival had become instinct. He didn't care who he had to steal from, who he had to threaten, who he had to step on just to live for a few more hours. Then, one day, he's saved.
1. Chapter 1

" _Daddy! I want that one! It's a rubber boy! Rubber boy, rubber boy!"_

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-

* * *

Luffy sat in the corner of his cell with his straw hat hung over his eyes. He tried with all his might to get even the tiniest bit of sleep but the endless chatter in the background filled his ears with unwanted and incredibly irritating noise. His fellow slaves murmured amongst themselves as they messed with pebbles on the cold ground. The ear-bleeding sound some of the rocks produced as they scratched against the stone was enough to make the straw hat wearing boy want to commit a mass homicide the likes of which have never been seen. He lifted his hands up and his elbow knocked against the shoulder of a grimy old man sitting next to him who honestly needed to be put down before his body decomposed while he was still alive. Luffy recoiled from the human abomination as he pressed his palms against his ears to block out the sound. It honestly didn't help in the slightest. All he heard was:

"-fucking spits on the spot on the floor I just cleaned! I just wanna take his neck and-"

"-go home to my wife. I miss her-"

"-DICKBAG! THAT WAS MY LOAF OF BREAD, YOU-"

"-promised they'd come and get me-"

"-some goddamn booze! I haven't had a drink in-"

"-THIRTEEN YEARS! I HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT FOR THIRTEEN FUCKING-"

"-maggots in my bread, again!? Jesus, just kill me before-"

"-I swear, I'll beat the shit out of you, you water drinking bitch-"

Not to mention the excessive amounts of crying and atmospheric melancholy so prevalent it was physically palpable. Luffy let his gaze flicker toward the ceiling in vexation as the obnoxious screams of a child echoed off the damp walls.

"Havin' fun over there, kid?" one of the slaves cackled as he scratched an 'x' into the ground. The other man he was playing tic-tac-toe against groaned in disappointment as he tore off a small piece of his bread roll and handed it to the victor.

Luffy settled for flipping the guy off as he elbowed the dilapidated old man next to him away. "Fuck off," he grumbled as he shoved the body as far from him as possible. "And, for the love of all that is good with the universe, shut the hell up." The small teen's frustrations only grew as the group he'd just complained at laughed and increased their volume like the assholes they were.

"I know they're gonna come back for me. . ."

Luffy rolled his eyes as he adjusted his hat to sit crookedly on his head. "Holy shit," he breathed out with barely contained annoyance as his gaze shifted to the other corner a new guy had curled into. "You're still on about that? No one's coming to get you! Now, shut up and deal with it, shithead!"

"But they promised-"

"Motherfucker, you've been a broken record for the past three weeks," Luffy emphasized as he picked up a pebble and threw it at the pathetic man. "Just give it a fucking rest or I'll cut out your tongue to give you something real to cry about."

"Ooh, the runt's getting feisty~" one of the slaves teased as he reached out to take a sleeping slave's bowl of water.

"Go to hell, asswipe."

"Already here, kid!"

"Yet, surprisingly, you still haven't sucked Satan's dick," Luffy observed as he grabbed his bread and tore a piece off with his teeth. He hastily swallowed it as he reached out for the discarded rations from the old man he'd pushed away. "I try to fucking sleep and all you assholes do is scream like banshees. If you need something to do with your mouth, go kiss Charloss' ass." He swiftly cupped the bread he'd been reaching for and fell back into his corner with an extra bit of food.

The slave snorted as he picked out a dead spider from his stolen bowl of water and flicked it away. "Stick your hand in a furnace, Monkey," he halfheartedly threatened before he took needy gulps of salty water and cringed at the unsavory taste.

Luffy snorted as he lifted up his wrists to show heavy sea stone cuffs wrapped around them. They latched onto his bones painfully and refused to adjust to a more comfortable position as he shook them. "Good idea. Maybe the gas released from burning rubber will be toxic enough to kill everyone around me. Remind me to do that whenever I have cleaning duty," he commented as he glared at his bleeding wrists with an impressive amount of spite. "Stupid pieces of shit won't even loosen up," he hissed at his restraints with quiet aggression.

"Why not just go the full mile and kill yourself? Better than rotting away in this place like Ol' Man McGee, over there," a guy suggested as he pointed at the practically skeletonized grandpa wasting away life on the harsh floor. "I heard they actually closed all slaves out of the kitchen because some guy stabbed himself in the neck with a knife and bled everywhere."

Another slave immediately punched him in the arm with a visible rage. "Don't be goin' around and puttin' that in people's heads! I got the shit beaten out of me, the day after!"

"Jeez, I was just saying, I would do it if I had the chance!"

"Oh, zip it, ya lil' shit! I don't wanna get punished just because you decided to smash your head in with a glass vase!"

Luffy covered his eyes with his hand as he let out a suffering sigh. "I can already tell this is going to be a great day," he groaned sarcastically as he chewed on his bread roll.

"It's actually nighttime, brat."

"No one fucking asked you, you old geezer! Go back to playing your dumb tic-tac-toe bullshit!"

* * *

 _"I found out how to make the rubber boy cry! Cry more, rubber boy! Cry more!"_

Stop, it hurts, I can't breathe, I'm dying, stop, it hurts, I can't breathe-

* * *

Luffy suppressed a yawn as he wiped the porcelain tiled floors with a sponge. He didn't really understand why the hell he was polishing an already spotless floor but he didn't question it. For all he knew, the World Nobles had laser precision eyesight that detected any form of dust in their mansion and they couldn't go on with their lives like normal human beings until they've had something annihilate it. Unfortunately, the thing they always picked to clean up the entire fucking floor by itself was Luffy. Why? He didn't know. Some of his cellmates reasoned that he was the smallest out of all of them and so his hands could fit through nooks and crannies. However, they completely dismissed the idea when they took into account that the floor was just a sprawling rectangle that required no snooping in small spaces or whatever they were on about. Maybe the nobles just wanted to taunt the very insignificance of his existence by assigning him the most mundane and energy draining tasks.

Luffy wiped his forehead with the back of his arm as he reached out to drop his sponge in his bucket of soapy water but he didn't make it before one of the guards walked up behind him. A metal foot smacked the side of the bucket and sent it skidding across the floor. Soap water pooled across the once dry tiles and soaked his clothes. Luffy sighed exasperatedly before he sent the guard a greatly unamused glare. He let his sponge fall out of his grip and it hit the ground with an unceremonious plop.

"Clean it up," the guard said plainly as he gestured toward the mess.

"No."

"Are you disobeying an order?"

Luffy squinted at the guy in a questioning and aggravated silent message before he picked up his sponge. His fingers tightened around the cleaning tool as he vindictively grimaced at it. "Fuck you," he growled at the guard as he lifted the sponge up to gift that jackass a present. "Your fucking mess. You clean it."

* * *

" _Come here, rubber boy! I wanna have fun!"_

He is my owner, he gives me shelter, he gives me food, I can't survive without his care, I can't survive-

* * *

The wind was knocked out of Luffy's lungs as he hit the ground with a dull thud. He let out of a muffled groan into the stone as others around him snickered. "I fuckin' hate all of you," he said querulously. He picked himself off the floor with a wince as his shoulder blades moved under a slash on his back. The moment one of his elbows gave out and he had to brace himself with his forearm, laughter erupted from many of the slaves. "I hope all of you die in here," he gritted out as he managed to sit against the wall instead of crawling on all fours like a mutt.

"If your hopes are that simple, it won't be a problem, runt!" a slave quipped, causing another bout of laughter.

"Oh, fuck off!" the straw-hatted boy spat as he glared at the older man. "You're in your forties and you need a fucking shave, you decrepit piece of shit."

"At least, I don't have slashes on my back because I constantly can't follow orders," the man retorted with a smirk. "Kid, you have enough of those for every slave in this shithole!"

"It's not that I can't follow orders, you asshole! I'm not degenerate, unlike you!" Luffy growled sharply as he shifted so he leaned on his side instead of his back. "I just don't want listen to stickasses!"

For some odd reason, almost everyone in the cell found his outburst hilarious and roared like a group of idiots. Another slave pointed at him as he held his nonexistence stomach. "Oh shit, puberty hit this kid hard. He's going through that edgy, rebellious phase!" he squawked.

Luffy clenched his fist before he reached out for an empty bowl and hurled it at the slave, hitting him square in the head. The slave cried out in pain as he held his forehead, crimson liquid seeping through the cracks between his fingers. "Say another word and I'll punch you in the dick so hard you'll never have kids," he warned with unhinged malice. The slave tried to wipe the blood out of his head wound with his hands but it kept leaking out until someone helped him press a piece of cloth against his skull.

"You're an asshole, brat," the guy accused as he applied pressure against his injury.

"Oh, sweet hypocrisy," was Luffy's indignant reply. "I'm going to sleep. If any of you so much as touch me, I'll gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon."

"Ugh, I wish Ol' Man McGee were still here! He brightened up every situation!" some other guy complained as he flopped over.

Luffy scoffed at the thought of the eldest slave. "You mean that old bastard made of mealworms and foreskin who was decaying from the inside out?" That old man took up too much space with his presence and drained resources like a whirlpool. The small teen ended up just stealing most of that guy's rations while he slept like the dead. It's not like the sack of shit was going to need it, being at the end of the line and all. If he hadn't been put out of his misery any later, Luffy would've killed him, instead. All everyone did was harass him, anyway.

The slave's face lit up at the description. "Yeah, him! I think he really liked my singing!"

"Your singing sounds like a seagull choking on a fish bone and all it can do for the rest of the day is let out dry heaves instead of incessant screeching," Luffy slandered with a nettled glint in his eye as said slave gasped melodramatically.

"You wound me!" he whined as he tugged at the clothes over his chest. "Right here!" A string of chuckles echoed in the cell.

Luffy stuck his tongue out in disgust as he turned away from the others. "Why can't this be quiet like the other cells? Why am I roped in with you shitheads?" he muttered in displeasure.

"Bah, the other cells are boring. All they do is cry and stuff this place up with angst," one of the men insulted as he took a bite out of his piece of bread. "This cell is better than those shits!"

"Yeah, so much better," Luffy sneered as his gaze shifted downward. "If I ever get out of here, the first thing I'm gonna do is murder all of you without remorse," he stated offhandedly.

He heard a couple of puffs and snorts to near him as pebbles scratched the floor. "Careful, kid. Continue with that talk and you'll start to sound like Broken Record over there in the corner!"

"Yeah? Well, unlike Broken Record rocking in the corner like a five-year-old having a fucking tantrum, I'm not a delusional nutcase," Luffy seethed as he tilted his hat over his eyes. "I'm going the fuck to sleep. Have a terrible ass night. And I fucking know it's night, this time!" He forced his muscles to relax as he slouched against the wall and closed his eyes for the first time in days. His cellmates still jeered on as usual but he honestly couldn't give less of a flying fuck. He was already begrudgingly used to it, after being exposed to this dump for six years of his miserable life. With his brows furrowed and blood dripping from his back, he let sleep engulf him in a vengeful wave.

* * *

" _I don't need rubber boy! I can buy a better one!"_

Don't let me go, I don't know what to do, I'm not good enough, I can't breathe-

" _Bye-bye, rubber boy!"_

* * *

 ** _Review, if it isn't too much trouble?_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**I was recently told by my favorite author that I use the word "fuck" too often.**_

 _ **This is dedicated to them.**_

* * *

"What're ya spacin' out for, kid?" a slave called out.

Luffy blinked and turned away from the bars to see a group of slaves just looking at him with semi-disgruntled and amused expressions. "What?"

"You've been staring out there for hours," another slave explained with a chuckle. "You could burn through that iron if you stared any longer. You ain't thinking about anything, are you?"

"Nothing."

"Ya really thinking about nothin'?"

"Yeah, nothing."

* * *

"How many times do they have to cut you up before you learn?" An older slave mocked as he laughed at Luffy's suffering.

The small teen was propped up against his usual corner in the cell and he didn't even have the willpower to tell the guy to shove a stick up his ass. He just snorted and let his head roll to the side. Luffy caught eye of another man sitting in the opposite corner sleeping soundly. It was Ol' Broken Record, who finally shut up after three weeks of wailing like a spoiled child. Honestly, the lack of incessant repetition of the same phrase grated on his nerves even more than when the guy ran his mouth for hours. Who the hell was he supposed to take out his misdirected rage on, now? Luffy picked up a pebble and tossed it in his hand a few times. After a good second of contemplation, he chucked the pebble at the man's head.

"Ow! What the fuck!?" Ol' Broken Record complained as he rubbed the sore spot on his forehead.

Luffy spread his arms out towards the man as if to showcase him. "And he speaks real words, for once!" The slaves around him laughed at the display but one of them grabbed their own pebble and hit Luffy with it.

"Your trashy language is spreading," the slave grumbled as he rolled his eyes.

Luffy petulantly stuck his tongue out at the other slave. "Stop being a killjoy. You're just bitter about that concussion I gave you two days ago."

"Go fuck yourself, Monkey."

"Wow, such originality," Luffy muttered as he rolled his eyes. "Broken Record, not gonna go on your usual spiel about saviors and what not?" The man didn't respond. Luffy grabbed a roll of bread next to him and munched on it. "Is he dead? Please tell me he's dead."

All the dumb shits in the room chuckled as if he was joking, which was just annoying. Since when did he become the object of hilarity? Some guy reached over to check Broken Record's pulse before his hand was smacked away. "Stop messing with me!" Ol' Broken Record growled as he glared at the guy.

The guy's brows furrowed as he pushed himself to his feet. "Oh, you've been non stop whining for three weeks and now you think you're in charge?" Luffy sighed at the commonly heard threat and closed his eyes to try and catch some sleep. However, before the guy could kick Ol' Broken Record in the stomach, his supposed victim grabbed him by the ankle and practically flipped him onto the concrete ground with a harsh smack. The cell immediately quieted. Luffy couldn't even hear the usual ear-piercing scrape of small rocks against the stone. He cracked open an eye to look over at the once pathetic man.

"I wasn't whining!" Broken Record denied as he stood up and planted his feet on the ground. "I know my crew will come back for me! They said they would! I'll fight any of you dick heads if you dare underestimate them!"

Luffy groaned. And he thought the dumb bastard had finally grown a pair. Why did he have to throw that dumb pebble? Why did he think he missed the hooligan's delusional rambles? "Damn, he's back to speaking gibberish. It was good while it lasted, guys."

"And you!" Broken Record shouted as he spun around. He pointed an accusing finger at Luffy with a vengeful gleam in his eye. Luffy straightened up a little with interest. "What do you know about anything? You're just a fucking child! Stop making assumptions without bases, you stupid brat! I'm not crazy and you're not a psychiatrist so stop acting like you know people when you really don't! My crew _will_ come back for me and-"

"Would you shut up about your crew!" Luffy snapped as he used his remaining strength to stand on his feet. The cuts in his back protested but he stood his ground. "If your crew were so great, how are you here in the first place!? Yeah, they're just so fucking great that they can't even save their own crewmate from getting captured by slave trappers! You think a crew as weak as that can raid Mariejois!?" The small teen let out a harsh laugh at the thought. "Use your fucking brain, you moron! You know who the last person psychotic enough to raid Mariejois was? Fisher Tiger! Guess how long ago that was! Five years ago! Nothing fucking changed, you dumbass! They rebuilt this place like magic in just a few short months and beefed up security tenfold! They're putting sixty percent of their firepower into this place! That's how much they care about their precious holy ground!" He marched on over to Broken Record and raised up to his toes just to try and look the idiot with a death warrant in the eye. "Don't come on walking in here like you're hot shit! Your crew won't even be able to make it within a hundred kilometers before they're shot down like animals! You see that half blind old piece of garbage sitting next to those bars and holding his hand out like he thinks he deserves another roll of bread?"

"Fuck you, brat," the man spat.

Luffy ignored the man and returned to staring down Ol' Broken Record with a glare molten enough to melt hell. "He's been in this shithole for thirteen years! Not even Fisher Tiger saved his rotten ass and you think your little crew can somehow do the job? That's real fuckin' cute, pal!" He gestured to the rows and rows of cells around them, filled with slaves. Their eyes were zombie-like; some wide and unseeing, others closed by the hand of death. These former people, now all beaten and burned into the perfect shell. Something the nobles could program to do whatever they wanted. "You want to survive?" he snarled as his eyes scan over the slaves of his own cell. The slaves who were still _alive_. "Start by forgetting about your little crew and focusing on something that's actually important."

* * *

"That was really intense," one of the slaves mentioned as he scrubbed the ballroom floor. Luffy sat up, startled from looking out the window at the rest of Mariejois. He sent the slave an annoyed glance at the comment. "Jeez, just sayin'. Never seen ya go off on someone like that."

"Shut up, dipshit," Luffy retorted as he went back to basically scraping the marble tiles with his rag.

"Hey, ya can' blame a guy for being curious."

"Yes, I can. Shut up." The small teen effectively ended the conversation and continued to dry up excess water. The two cleaned the rest of the ballroom in silence. Right as Luffy was about to pick up his bucket of soapy water and move on to the hallway, a guard walked by and kicked the pail away like nothing. The teen stared at the spilled water that pooled across the ground before his head snapped around to face the dickhead who just kicked over his bucket. Seriously, it was like once a day with these guys.

"Come on, man. This is like the third time, today," the other slave said as he visibly deflated. "Shouldn' you get punished for this?"

"Silence!" The guard bellowed as he smashed the end of his spear against the floor. "You have no right to speak unless spoken to!" With that, he strode away as if he didn't just sound like a mother reprimanding her rowdy children.

The slave shot Luffy an incredulous raise of his eyebrow, which was honestly amusing. He could almost see the urge to laugh written all over the man's face. "Don't speak unless spoken to," Luffy mocked as he started wiping the tiles with his semi-dry rag. "What is he? Even my grandpa doesn't say that." He threw the torn up piece of cloth in his hand against the tiles with a scoff. "Fuck this, I'm not clean up this stupid fucking floor for the third time! Meet you in the hallway!" He stomped over to his bucket and swiped it off the floor before he took the other slave's sponge and marched out of the ballroom.

"Hey! How am I supposed to clean without a sponge!?" the other slave shouted as he scurried after Luffy. "Wait up!" Luffy didn't mind him and continued his beeline straight towards the hallway. The other slave managed to catch up to him, although he heaved from exhaustion. "Jeez, how do you walk so fast? You're bonier than I am!"

Luffy resisted the urge to lash out at his unwanted companion and just pushed open the large doors leading to the glass hallway. The thing was spotless; of course, it was. When was anything in this holy hell not spotless? This was stupid, everything was stupid. He set down his bucket and began scrubbing at random areas in hopes of clearing away any invisible dust from the glass. The last time he half-assed his duties, he got more slashes on his back than he accumulated in three years worth of time. "Let's get this over with. I want my goddamn moldy bread and I ain't gonna let those jackasses back in the cell steal my shit."

"And you blame others for being killjoys."

A shriek cut off their conversation and the two of them turned to look at each other. In silent agreement, they both slammed opened the doors and rushed into the ballroom. Saint Shalulia stood next to the puddle of water they left in the room with a distressed finger.

"Why is there water all over the ground!? I could've slipped and fell! This is an attack on my person! A clear assassination attempt!"

Luffy's face fell into his palm as he groaned. "One of your shitty guards kicked a pale over."

"How dare you speak to me that way, with that vulgar language!" Saint Shalulia screamed. "You should be on your knees! Guards!"

One of the guards walked over to Luffy before they struck him down with their seastone spear. Luffy bit his tongue as he hit the floor with a resonating thud. Blood welled up in his mouth but he remained resilient to any sound of weakness. The fact that his back was still shredded from the last time he pissed someone off didn't help with the pain.

"Deal with this thing accordingly," Shalulia sniffed as she snobbily looked down at Luffy's crippled form. "I have no time for such foolishness. Father is expecting me." She promptly spun around and made her way out of the room, several servants trailing behind her with their heads down low.

"Learn your place, slave!" the guard barked after the door closed.

"Says the slightly more privileged dog," Luffy choked out as he tried to focus his mind on something other than the searing pain. He spat at the guard's feet with a feral smirk. "You think you have authority but you don't. All of you act like you can order us around to hide how little power you really have." He shakily pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet. "You keep us trapped in this hell just to feed your own ego. You know what it's like, don't you? Do you see the world out there? Or are you so blinded by your nonexistent power that you can't look out a window." He bared his teeth like a hungry animal and straightened out his aching back just to try and find the guard's eyes. "Stay blind, then. If you want to keep propelling your delusional fantasy, go ahead. Hit me again. I dare you, bitch."

* * *

"Why was I the only one to get whipped?" Luffy mumbled into the concrete.

"You're the one who always causes trouble," a gruff old slave replied as he tore a stiff piece of bread from its foundations with his teeth. "Look, kid. None of us like listening to those assholes but you'll die before next season if you keep pulling the same crap."

"By all means, I tested that fireplace idea yesterday." The small teen let out a suffering sigh and tried to move himself to no avail. "They caught me and beat the shit out of me right in front of everyone who was here at the time. I didn't know guards had seastone spears. That's just unfair."

One of the slaves burst out laughing as he remembered the event that had previously taken place. "It was hilarious! You should've seen how the guard reacted when he tried to bite his hand off! Classic!"

"Wish I were here to see that," the older slave said with a humored snort. "Beats walking around on all fours the entire day carrying the weight of a fat elephant on my back."

Luffy closed his eyes and turned his head so his face wasn't squashed against the floor. "Shut your trap, I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Sleep and you might not wake back up."

"Good."

"You're still hanging on, kid, no matter what you believe you're thinking. One day you'll realize you have to fall. It's okay."

"Shut up."

* * *

"Tell me about your crew," Luffy said as he sat down next to Ol' Broken Record. The man scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion as he sent the teen a glare. "What? I'm not sitting next to Mouth Breather over there and listening to the rambles of some guy who's drunk on not drinking for ten years."

"Just a few days ago you were telling me to shut up and now you want me to talk?" Broken Record groused as he shook his head. "You're a brat, you know that?"

Luffy shrugged off the insult as he lazily hung his head. "I've been told. It would've stayed as my nickname if I didn't threaten to castrate all of them with my bare hand. Still call me it, anyway, the bastards." He almost found it in himself to giggle at the absurdly shocked expression on Broken Record's face at whatever he just said before it melted into expectancy.

"Of course you said you would do that. I'm not even surprised anymore."

"Shut up, I'm not that violent."

"The first day I was here, you punched a guy in the face and the following days you threw a bowl at someone's head, gave someone a concussion, threatened to rip out someone's spine from their ass, and pretty much picked a fight with a different noble every hour. Plus the fact that you just told me you're willing to castrate people with your bare hands, I'd say you have something wrong with you."

"Whatever, you're going off topic," Luffy reminded while paying no heed to anything Ol' Broken Record had listed. "I wanna learn about this crew you've been crying about."

"I was never crying about it!"

It was Luffy's turn to send Broken Record an incredulous look. "Really? All I remember is you whining, 'They promised they'd come and get me! I know they're gonna come back for me! I'm tragically relying on people to come break me out of Mariejois! I have unrealistic expectations! Oh, woe is me!" Luffy completely his mocking monologue by throwing the back of his hand over his forehead and dramatically falling to the ground.

"I don't sound like that!" the man retorted as he turned away from Luffy in agitation. "You just think I sound like that!"

"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Luffy said as he sat back up. "Tell me about your crew."

Ol' Broken Record let out an exasperated sigh as he scratched his head. "My crew, huh? They're a bunch of jackasses, that's what they are. Don't care about anything except for adventure and gold. Swear they'd drink themselves to death if I weren't there to steer the ship. We've got five people. Just five. I'm the navigator. Well, I was. Bobo was good with guns. The guy was either shooting something out of the sky somber or shooting something out of the sky drunk. Tobio was the doctor. He always wanted to solve everything by stitching. Got a cold, stitch it up. Got yourself cut in half, stitch it up. Firstmate was always fishing. He really liked fishing. He ain't good at anything but fishing and making plans. Captain's a nutcase. He doesn't follow a plan for anything. He just goes wherever his fuckin' heart leads him. Enough to make it into the Grandline. At least, one island in."

"They sound weird," Luffy commented as he rocked back and forward. "Why did you only get an island in?"

"Damn Whiskey Peak," Ol' Broken Record spat as his hands balled up into fists. "Buncha lying bastards split me apart from my crew."

"Whiskey Peak?"

"You haven't heard about it, have you?" Luffy shook his head and leaned forward, signaling for the man to continue. "The place is swarming with bounty hunters. They act like they welcome pirates but they're all bastards. We were dragged into a fight for our lives, half drunk and messed up from whatever they put in our food. Got myself captured. They said they'd save me." He ran his hand through his cropped hair a few times as if trying to get rid of something in his mind. "Some assholes realized they could just make more money if they sold me to some slave traders. Made the deal and here I am."

Luffy pursed his lips into a frown before he fiddled with the string around his neck and exhaled. "Jeez, when did I ask you for your life story?"

Broken Record looked like he was about to mouth off before he restrained himself. "Why do you care, anyway? Nothing I say matters to you."

The small teen stopped curling the string around his finger and grabbed the straw hat hanging on his back. "See this thing? Someone important gave it to me. He was a pirate." Luffy placed the hat on his head with a content smile. "I made a promise to him that I would become Pirate King." He chuckled as he felt the grooves of the woven straw between his fingers. "Can you imagine a seven-year-old standing on a port just bawling his eyes out like a toddler as he declares he'll become the next Pirate King?"

Ol' Broken Record couldn't help but let the edges of his lips quirk upward in the slightest smile. "You sounded like a way better kid back then than now."

"A crybaby and a weakling?" Luffy shook his head but keep his nostalgic expression. "I'll have to admit, I was less of an asshole."

"Somehow, that's the only part I can't believe."

The two devolved into fits of laughter and giggles as Luffy lightly punched Broken Record in the arm. "Now, who's the asshole?"

Ol' Broken Record smacked his hand down on the teen's shoulder and pushed him away. "Shut it, you're still the asshole."

"And I keep my title for the fourth year!"

The other slaves either scoffed at their enthusiasm or found themselves drawn to the sudden occurrence of joy. Some were about to pitch in before a loud crash disrupted them. A guard stood at the bars with his foot against them. He slowly lowered it and hit the end of his spear against the ground.

"Be quiet," he ordered before he walked off.

Luffy's mood instantly soured as his posture slumped and he stuck his tongue out. "Hope you burn in a fire," he muttered.

"Maybe he will if Fisher Tiger comes in and burns everything down, again," Ol' Broken Record suggested with a shrug.

Luffy grinned and hit him on the head. "You wish."


	3. Chapter 3

**So many of your reviews gave me the warm and fuzzies. Thank you!**

* * *

Luffy drew in a shaky breath as he willed the pain away from his body. He withered in the corner as his mind screamed at him to focus on anything other than the burning heat of slashes on his back. His hands unconsciously clenched and uncurled rhythmically as he tried to regain control over his senses. He cautiously exhaled when he realized he was sweating from the pressure in his chest. His hands rigidly balled up into fists as he tried to distract himself from his injuries. His head rolled back and leaned against the stone wall.

"Fuck."

Luckily, he was alone. It was strange, being the only one. Well, he wasn't completely alone. There were slaves in the other cells around him but he didn't care for them. So, he was alone. The nobles decided he was useless since he couldn't even stand, and left him to wallow in pain. They didn't leave him any food or water, though. They didn't even leave him any bandages. Of course, they didn't; there was always a trade-off attached to seemingly merciful gestures. Nobles were never nice for nice sake. He learned that after Charloss...

After...

Luffy closed his eyes with a frustrated growl. "Great, fantastic time to think about your stupid-ass abandonment issues, Luffy. Absolutely brilliant." This was so fucking stupid. "Charloss was the asshole of assholes, anyway. Fuck that guy," he whispered through gritted teeth. "I'm not his fucking pet he left to the wolves. I was never his pet. He can go die in a fucking ditch. I hope he drowns in a pool of his own fat."

The pounding of his heart filled the silence. It roared in his ears and closed his throat. His nails dug into his palms as he tried to bring his attention back to his breathing. The moment he thought he found his control, his brain decided to mess everything up by making him think he was short of breath. He gasped for air as his body felt like thousands of ants were burrowing under his skin. He covered his face with his hands as he tried to block out his panic but his head was too loud. _Don't let me go, I don't know what to do, I'm not good enough, I'm dying, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I-_

A loud slam startled Luffy out of his sudden attack and he uncovered his face. Two guards threw in a body and immediately locked the door as if they were quarantining a deadly plague. The small teen's hands trembled as the sensation of insects crawling in him started to fade. He watched as the body on the ground groaned and sat up with a scowl. Luffy recognized the guy. He was the damned middle aged idiot who could get drunk on anything as long as he believed it was alcohol. Of all the people, why did he have to be stuck in the cell with this dumb asshole? The old man seemed to reflect the same disdain when he noticed Luffy sitting in the corner.

"Great, it's the brat who got to skip a day," the man grumbled as he laid back down and sprawled out over the unforgiving ground.

"Go fuck a chandelier, dipshit," Luffy fired back. He was actually a little thankful for the distraction from the constant buzzing in his head. Only a little.

"I'm pretty sure that's not possible, brat."

"You just gotta believe," Luffy said airily, his voice still unsteady. He comically looked up at the ceiling like a naive, wide-eyed toddler.

The man snorted with a reluctant grin as he looked down at the floor. "I wouldn't ever want to believe in that. I don't even want to think about that. Thanks for putting that image in my head, kid. Real nice of you."

Luffy reached behind him to grab his straw hat. He winced as his muscles protested against the movement. His shoulder blades dug into his skin as he placed the hat on his head. "Only the best from your resident asshole," he welcomed with a tip of his hat. His back practically begged him to stop moving and his breath caught in his throat. His hat fell back and hung loosely around his neck, like before. Luffy watched like a third-party audience as his body trembled in his thin and poorly fitted clothing. "Goddamn it, I thought I was over this," he growled lowly.

"The hell's going on with you, kid?" the man questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Finally gone crazy?"

Luffy drew in a deep breath through his nose and shook his head. "Yeah, maybe," he replied with a chuckle. Caring about a noble. Yep, he's definitely crazy.

* * *

Broken Record plopped himself down next to Luffy with a grunt and rubbed his back. "Fuckin' hell, is it normal to get whipped every time you breathe?" he hissed with a small wince. He set his roll of bread on the ground and stretched his arms.

Luffy eyed the man curiously before his gaze turned toward the food. "I feel like you've been here long enough to know the answer," he muttered. "Why the hell are you sitting next to me, anyway? We're not friends."

"You could've fooled me," Broken Record said with a shrug. "I thought we had a bonding moment, yesterday."

Luffy snorted at the statement and smirked. "Right. You told me about your stupid crew, I told you about a fucking hat. So much bonding. I can see the connection forming between us. It's so powerful." He soulfully grabbed the man's wrist and mockingly squeezed it with a sniff. "Can you feel it?"

"Jesus, you need to tone down some of that sarcasm, kid."

"In your dreams, dumbass."

"I'll take that as a term of endearment." Broken Record leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Hell, I'm beat. Wake me up when-"

"I swear on my sanity, if you say, 'when my crew shows up,' I will tear your life a new fucking shithole," Luffy threatened, although his unwanted companion didn't seem all that affected. Broken Record just snickered a little with a content smile. His shoulders relaxed as he let out a sigh and drifted off into unconsciousness. Luffy watched as the man's breathing evened out and his head tilted to one side. The small teen waited for a few more minutes before he brought his hand up to the man's face. He snapped three times to make sure Broken Record was completely asleep before he reached out and grabbed the bread the man had neglected. He stared at the food for a few seconds, hesitation suddenly locking his joints. _It's just a piece of fucking bread. You've stolen food from a withered old man, before! Just eat it!_ Luffy mentally barked at himself. _Holy hell, what's wrong with me?_

"You gonna steal from a friend, brat?" One of the slaves snickered in his gruff voice. "No mercy."

Luffy's head shot up in surprise, at the sound of the word. Friend? When the fuck was that title in the running? They were acquaintances at best. They didn't even know each other's names, for crying out loud. Luffy glared at the slave as he took a hefty bite out of the stale ration. "He's not a friend, you dumb bitch." _That's right, I don't have any friends._ He took another spiteful bite out of his loaf and chewed. He hated every second of it.

* * *

 _He was being carried. His small body dangled helplessly in the arms of someone much stronger and larger than himself. He was being scolded. He didn't pay attention to why. He just took in the dense jungle that surrounded him. It was oddly calming. He couldn't pinpoint why. His feet met a ground covered in snow. A thin jacket covered his pale skin, yet he felt no warmth from it. The strong figure was gone. Another figure in front of him ran away, effortlessly hopping over stones and creeks. He needed to catch up. He knew he had to. He sluggishly followed the small figure until they were out of sight. He continued to search. He walked through the seasons without even catching a glimpse of the figure. It frustrated him, for some reason. Why couldn't he catch up? Why was he so slow? He couldn't move. Something was stopping him. He tugged with his foot until he noticed the chain wrapped around his ankle. Why was there a chain? A shadow of a hand grabbed him and tugged him back. He began to panic as he struggled against whatever was dragging him away. His mouth didn't move but he could hear his voice in his ears._

 _"Somebody! Gramps! Ace! Help! Help me!"_

* * *

Luffy aggressively slammed his mop into his bucket of soapy water, causing it to splash everywhere. He honestly couldn't care less about the mess he was making for himself. He just wanted the day to be over with. Ever since his little heart to heart with Broken Record, Luffy's been thinking about things he hadn't thought about in five years. Stupid things. Useless things from the past. He was still trying to figure out why he told Broken Record about his dumb-ass pirate dream! He didn't have time for the other emotionally draining bullshit his brain just decided to hurl at him all at once! Luffy took the mop out of the bucket and practically stabbed the wooden paneled floors with it.

The other slave with him looked over in confusion and slight distress. "You're gonna kill the floor…"

"Do you want me to use you as a test subject for ten different ways to perform unethical surgery with a mop?" Luffy asked, clearly hoping for the unfortunate soul to say yes. Sadly, the slave just hastily shook his head and went back to cleaning dust off the wall decor. "What a bitch," he grumbled when the slave pathetically tried to widen the distance between them like a frightened animal. He liked the other guy more, from a few days ago. At least that guy didn't lose his balls somewhere on the boat he was shipped in.

"Be quiet!" A guard demanded, although his booming voice didn't intimidate Luffy in the slightest. Before the boy could retort, the guard stomped off without a word.

"Go fuck yourself," Luffy hissed as he scraped the floorboards with his mop in annoyance.

 _"Somebody! Gramps! Ace! Help! Help me!"_

Luffy grit his teeth as he glared at his reflection in the soaking wet panels. "Damn it." He could get why Gramps was in his dream. Every now and then he would think about how the shitty geezer was doing. He didn't like how the old fart would drift into his mind but it still happened. What he couldn't wrap his mind around was the fact that Ace was there. When the fuck did Ace become important enough to warrant a spot in his conscience? All that little shit did was leave him stranded in the jungle while he chased after the damn prick for months. Luffy sincerely hoped that fucker was torn limb from limb by a mother bear and fed to her children. Or maybe he was swallowed alive by that gigantic tiger and painfully digested. Luffy liked the idea of him slowly drowning in the turbulent ocean, too. Or he could've been ripped in half from his ass and-

"Uh, Monkey…"

Luffy snapped out of his thoughts and his throat let out an irritated rumbled. "What do you want, now?" Geez, he could feel the bloodlust hanging in the air. Did he do that?

The slave chewed his lip nervously as he pointed at the small teen's mop. "You've been cleaning the same spot for ten minutes."

Luffy looked down at the ground to see he had all but scratched through the polish and wax and damaged the wood while he was stuck in his mind. He pursed his lips and unconsciously rolled his shoulders, his back still raw and red. Normally, he would just accept his fate and deal with the punishment but his body withered when he remembered the lashings. The small teen quickly grabbed the bucket of water and haphazardly placed it over the gash in the floor. He could still see some of the splinters but it was a decent temporary cover-up. _I'll just blame it on the other guy, later._ Luffy turned his head to watch the slave use a rag to clean the windows. Poor bastard was probably pissing himself from the amount of bloodlust Luffy unintentionally leaked while thinking about all the ways Ace could die. Too bad, he was going to make the guy's day way worse. _Fucking hell, Luffy. Just mop the goddamn floor._

It took another two hours, but the hallway was finally cleaned. Luffy discarded his mop onto the floor with an exhausted monotone cheer and stretched his limbs. The other slave wiped his forehead on his shirt and surveyed the area anxiously. Luffy eyed the slave with a disgruntled pout and crossed his arms.

"What's up with you?" His voice was slightly grainy from the dryness in his throat.

"What do we do about that?" the slave asked as he pointed towards the tin bucket in the middle of the floor. "Someone's going to notice."

Luffy watched the slave wring his hands, the cuffs clinking against each other. He bit his inner cheek as his eyes looked over the guy. He was pretty young, probably just a bit older than Luffy. His cheeks were hollow and grey and his body was pale from malnutrition. The boy quickly checked if the slave had any recent injuries and only found a small cut on his hand. That made Luffy feel a little more justified, even though he knew he was about to throw a trembling lamb on the chopping block.

Luffy shrugged when he heard footsteps down the hall. "I guess we should move the bucket and find some way to cover it up before anyone arrives."

"Um, right," the slave agreed as he looked around for anything to replace the bucket of water. Luffy just walked over to the bucket and stared at it.

 _I was just cleaning up and realized the bucket was covering a hole that other guy made. That's what I was doing. Definitely._ Luffy almost laughed at his hilariously terrible plan, but it wasn't the worst one he'd ever made. _I just need to sell it. Swear a lot and call the guy a dumbass and no one can tell. Don't over think the consequences. Who cares about what happens to that guy, anyway? He'll probably just get a few smacks. They might crack the whip. Maybe get out the fire poker if they really want to push it. Shit, I'm over thinking. Just pick it up, for fuck sake!_ He knelt down to pick up the bucket when the footsteps drew near.

"Daddy, I want another one, now!"

Luffy's hand froze at the sound of the voice.

"Auctions don't start until next week, my son. We'll be able to get you a mermaid, then."

"But I want it now!"

Luffy was sure his whole body was shaking, at this point. He didn't dare move. His joints locked, trapping him in one position as his chest tightened. He held his breath like his life depended on it.

 _"Rubber boy! Rubber boy!"_

The memories he desperately wanted to suppress came flooding back like a dark wave of torture. Every touch, every whip, every gaze, every fucking smile. Luffy resisted the urge to curl in on himself and cry until the world was a distant memory. Of course, of all the days to show his ugly mug, Charloss chose today. It enraged him, knowing that the smug motherfucker still had such a hold on him, even when Luffy saw him strolling through the halls every other week. That was more exposure than anyone needed to be subjected to, in a lifetime. He should've been used to it, by now. Why wasn't he fucking used to it?

"What's going on, here?"

Luffy managed to turn his head upward to get a good look at the noble towering over him but the sharp end of a shoe immediately collided with his gut and sent him skidding across the ground.

"Don't look at me while you're so filthy!"

The small teen clutched his stomach and resisted the urge to throw up the already limited contents in his stomach. His ears seemed to muffle the sound around him and his eyes blurred so he couldn't find it in himself to pay attention to anything else except for how much he wanted the floor to swallow him whole.

* * *

"What's with the whole kicked puppy look?" Broken Record questioned offhandedly. "Did something happen? Your pet died?"

Luffy sent the man a deadpan glare before he rolled his eyes. "No, I got kicked by someone I really didn't want to see," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

"Shit, really? By who?"

The anticipation in the man's voice perplexed Luffy as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Why the hell are you so excited about my suffering?" he asked with a hint of accusation. "It makes you sound like a complete jackass."

"I'm just a nosy person," Broken Record brushed off before he scooted closer as if he were about to get front row seats to the town's latest gossip. "So, who kick you? It couldn't have been a guard. You get kicked by them all the time. Maybe another slave? No, nobody has the balls to do that. Actually, it could be a slave from one of the other cells…"

Luffy snorted at the stupidity of the thought. "Seriously? No one outside of this cell has a will to live, let alone to beat someone up. Besides, if they grew a dick one day and decided to be all rebellious, they're asses would be in this cell. The nobles don't like trouble children. They treat it like some contagious disease. They quarantine that shit."

Broken Record raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Yes, that's why half rotten Old Man McWhatever was in here. Because he had the contagious rebel virus." He raised his hands and waved his fingers around to create some sort of campy ghost effect.

Luffy couldn't hold in a small laugh at the childish gesture. "No, they kept that decaying corpse here because he actually had some sort of fucking disease and they don't care about us. I think it was an attempt at spreading the plague to kill all the people who actually have a soul but it didn't work because we eat too much bullshit to be affected by some measly sickness."

"You kind of generate bullshit for yourself, little man," Broken Record remarked with a smirk. "So, who was the one without the self-preservation skills to realize attacking Champion Asshole wasn't a good idea?"

Luffy sighed and hung his head in defeat. "I was betting on you just listing off random possibilities until I fell asleep, so I could avoid this conversation."

"Come on. Tell little old me what's got your panties in a twist," Broken Record insisted. Luffy hated how the man's attention wasn't divided in the slightest.

The boy pouted as he thought of a few different ways to frame his sentence. In the end, his blunt approach won out. "Saint Charloss basically punted me across the hallway," he admitted bitterly. "His shoe was pointed, so it hurt like a bitch. I was already having some sort of panic attack over framing a slave for a hole I carved into the panels with a fucking mop. Fucking hell, I used to frame people for my shit without a second thought. Now, it's like some sort of huge dilemma in my soul. The same thing happened when… It just sucked," Luffy practically whined. He almost accidentally revealed the fact that he stole Broken Record's food, in the middle of his rambling.

His slightly tolerable companion held up a hand as a signal to pause. "Hold up," he started incredulously. "You got kicked by a celestial dragon? How the hell did that happen?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Luffy muttered under his breath. "They don't like it when people lower than them have direct eye contact."

"Yeah, but I glare them all the time and all I get is some disgusted snort," Broken Record pointed out. "The fact that they would kick you just doesn't make sense. Wouldn't they be scared of getting filthy slave germs all over them?"

"Yeah," Luffy said flatly, "I guess." His fingers dug into his sides as he balled up his hands "I was careless and I broke the floor with a mop. I covered it with a bucket and was going to blame it on someone else to avoid getting beat up." His brows furrowed as he remembered his thought process at the time. "I kept telling myself it wasn't a big deal but something in the back of my mind was just bugging me. It was like I suddenly just grew a bullshit moral compass and it kept smacking me in the face. I felt bad for him! I felt bad! Do you realize how creepy that is? I've never felt bad about anything I've done since I got here!"

Broken Record let out a low whistle. "Not even about that guy you gave a concussion?"

"Especially, not him," Luffy instantly replied.

"Cold."

"I'm being serious," the boy complained.

"Alright, alright, I'll drop in my two coins," Broken Record said as his shoulders sagged. "Holy hell, kid, you're so emotionally constipated. Just leave it be. Frankly, you should feel bad about framing someone else. That's just a dickish thing to do. I framed my crewmates for pranks, all the time, but those were pranks. No one got hurt. At least, not intentionally and it was just all for fun. You were setting someone up to get whipped in your place." The man's sigh almost turned into a groan. "As for why you suddenly have an angel on your right shoulder, I don't fuckin' know. I don't think you should dwell on it too much, either. It's a good thing. Just let it happen. Maybe it's because your brain suddenly switched on-"

"Hey!"

"Or maybe, by some divine intervention, you actually gained a moral compass. Who knows."

Luffy's face pinched in irritation as he scoffed. "Great, thanks for the help. Really appreciate it," he mumbled almost incoherently.

Broken Record lazily aimed a finger gun at Luffy with a falsely suave look. "Hey, anytime, kid."

Luffy ended up stifling his laugh as his eyes averted. "I stole your food." _Shit, why did I just say that!?_

"Yeah, I know."

Luffy's head snapped around and he gaped at the man. _How the fuck does he know!?_

"The old guy over there told me," Broken Record pointed at a slave sitting on the opposite side of the sell as he played tic-tac-toe for a bowl of water.

 _That son of a bitch!_

"It's so easy to read your expressions," Broken Record observed with amused eyes. "I'm not angry. It's just one meal."

Luffy's lips curled at the tone of forgiveness. "Why are you being so nice about it?"

"What? I'm not gonna beat a kid over a piece of bread. That's not how I roll. Besides, I have a soft spot for you. Friends share with other friends," Broken Record stated with a wave of his index finger.

"I'm not a goddamn five-year-old!" the small teen shouted. "Stop talking to me like one!"

"You have the emotional capacity of one."

"Screw it, fuck you, shut up, I'm going to sleep!" Luffy promptly flopped over and curled into himself for warmth

"God, you're such a child."

Luffy kicked out his leg and his foot collided right into Broken Record's side. The man let out an indignant yelp at the unexpected force of the impact. "I'm not a child, dickhead!" the boy countered and stuck out his tongue in an unarguably childish manner. He wore a foxy grin he didn't have the conviction to wipe off.

Broken Record was about to retort but he held his tongue, to Luffy's confusion. A devilish smile crept onto his companion's face and sent shivers down his spine. "Brat, are you ticklish?"

All the color left in Luffy's face drained as he desperately scrambled to get away.

* * *

"Who knew Mariejois' Champion Asshole was ticklish."

"Are you asking for me to rip your tongue out of your disproportionate skull?" Luffy cheerily responded. The slave didn't say anything after that.

* * *

 _He stood next to Saint Charloss with a tray in his hands. A tea tray. Jasmine tea. His eyes were glued to the tinted liquid. Steam rose from the cups and the pot. He couldn't move his head or his eyes. He was stuck looking at the familiar tray._

 _"Daddy, he's boring! He's used to everything, now! He's no fun!"_

 _"What do you want, then?"_

 _"I want a fishman!"_

 _"What do you want to do with this?"_

 _"Hm… Throw it away!"_

 _A tug at the rope around his neck jerked him forward and he stumbled. Some of the tea spilled onto the tray, but he was thankfully able to keep everything from falling onto the ground._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _Another yank on his rope took him off guard and he tripped. He tried to keep the tray level with the floor as he fell. Tea spilled everywhere. None of the pottery broke but he was on the floor with tea spilled everywhere._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _He covered the back of his neck and his head with his hands and tucked his knees under his chest._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _It was an agonizing wait for blows that would never happen. He just stayed there, waiting._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _Tea was everywhere._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _Nothing was broken._

 _"Throw it away."_

 _He was on the ground._

 _"Throw it away!"_

 _And he waited._

* * *

"I still think they'll come and get me."

Luffy groaned as he pulled his knees up to his chest and his head under his arms. "If you say that one more time, I swear, I will gut you like a fucking crocodile."

Broken Record chuckled as he looked up at the dreary ceiling. "I don't know why I have so much faith in them. It's just that… We argued a lot and endangered each other's lives every day. I may have thrown Bobo overboard more than once. But we were like a family. I just know they're trying their damnedest to rescue me. Or I'm just in denial," the man mused with a small snort. "Then they would really be jackasses." Luffy turned his head from his protective fetal position to stare at Broken Record in silence. His eyes seemed unfocused, off in his own little world. The man smiled ruefully at the small teen. "What? Not gonna call me a fucking dumbass? Where's the comment about me being a pussy bitch? Not even a lazy death threat?"

Luffy blinked slowly and straightened up to level himself with Broken Record's gaze. "You are a tragedy."

Ouch.

The two sat in silence. Luffy's mind was up in the sky or something while Broken Record just mechanically ate his bread. A thirty by forty tic-tac-toe board had been drawn on the ground with rock and the other slaves were all rallied behind the two players to see who would lose a week's worth of food. Luffy's ears just blocked out the noise. "Have you ever had some asshole do something really fucked up to you and you know it but you can't leave it be?"

Broken Record swallowed the piece of bread in his mouth with a confused raise of his eyebrow. "Nope. What's with the sudden question?"

Luffy rolled his eyes and carefully leaned against the wall. "Whatever, you won't understand."

"Hit me," Broken Record replied with a head tilt. It was the boy's turn to send his companion a puzzled look. He raised a clenched fist and nailed the man right in the shoulder. "Ow, what the hell!" The man retracted and covered his arm with a protective hand.

"You said to hit you!" Luffy explained frustratedly.

"It means to tell me! It's a figure of speech, you dumb brat!"

"Oh, fuck you! I hope you die choking on your 'figure of speech' words, old man!"

"Old man!? I'm thirty-two-years-old!"

"Yeah, whatever! Big deal! At least I don't tell people to hit me and expect them to take it as a figure of speech, whatever the fuck that is!" Luffy stuck his tongue out at the man and huffed.

Broken Record grinned victoriously. "Now we're back to normal!" Luffy furrowed his eyebrows at the words but the man poked his cheek with an index finger. "It was getting a bit too depressing, yeah? It doesn't suit you. We wouldn't want a repeat of the other day."

Luffy's face lit up in realization before he frowned and knocked Broken Record's hand away. "Haha, very funny. You knew I wouldn't get it, didn't you."

"Maybe," the man replied cheekily. He frowned as he looked down at his red shoulder. "Holy shit, you punch hard for a scrawny ten-year-old."

"I'm thirteen!"

Broken Record stared at Luffy with such genuine surprise it almost made Luffy punch him again. "Seriously? Jesus, kid, you look like someone's disowned kitten."

"I'm not a pet, you asshole," Luffy spat in disgust. "I'm thirteen. Besides, if I were ten, that would mean I was sold when I was four. No one wants a four-year-old slave. Trust me, they've tried."

"You've been a slave for five years?"

Luffy shrugged, although it didn't feel as nonchalant as he'd hoped. "I guess. Maybe six. Whatever, I lost count. I spent a year and a few months as some personal servant before I got tossed into this shithole." The small teen stretched out his arms with a wince. "I wouldn't really count the first one or two years as being a slave. It was more of… I don't know. It was just really fucking weird."

Broken Record seemed to contemplate Luffy's words for a moment. "How so?"

Luffy opened his mouth to reply but he snapped his jaw shut and met Broken Record with a deadpan expression. "Why the hell would I tell you?"

The man smirked as swallowed the last of his food. "You were just about to."

"As if," Luffy snorted. "I'm not stacking my shit on someone whose name I don't even know."

"You make a fair point." Broken Record picked up his small bowl of water and chugged it all in just three gulps. "Has anyone ever told you how much of a downer you are?"

"No way," Luffy sarcastically droned. "No one has ever told me that, before."

Broken Record pointed at the boy as if he caught him in the act. "There! Right there! That's the downer attitude. You need to lighten up, kid! Smile more, it does wonders!" The man pinched one of Luffy's cheeks and pulled upward so his face was in a half smile half grimace. "You're always so serious and angry at everyone. That's why no one likes you!"

Luffy looked at his companion with extremely unamused eyes. "Excuse you, dipshit. Plenty of people like me. How can anyone resist my nye indestructible charisma?" He half-heartedly pushed Broken Record's hand away with a small smile. "Besides, you're one to talk. Who was the one crying like a baby about their crew, for days on end? You're not exactly the perfect picture of optimism, either."

"I wasn't whining, I was reaffirming my belief in my crew," Broken Record said defensively. "You just interpreted it as whiny because you're a dumbass."

Luffy gained an amused expression on his face. "Someone's getting a little sensitive," he teased. He started poking Broken Record in the arm with a mischievous grin. "You were whining, weren't you. Everyone knows it, no use in trying to hide it. There's nothing to be ashamed about. The past is the past, my friend. It's okay. Just focus on the present."

"Oh, fuck off, you parasite," the man grumbled jokingly. Suddenly, he gasped excitedly and grabbed Luffy's hand. "You just called me your friend!"

"What? No, I didn't!" Luffy denied as he pulled his hand out of Broken Record's grip.

Broken Record's playful expression only grew. "Getting a little sensitive, brat."

"Don't go around stealing my words, fucker! It doesn't apply to this situation!"

"What're you saying? It totally does! Just admit it, you think I'm your friend!"

"In your dreams, asshat!"

"C'mon, no one's gonna judge you!"

"Fuck you!" Luffy flipped Broken Record off with a laugh.

* * *

Luffy stuck his tongue out at the guard who basically overhand slammed him into the cell and stretched out his aching limbs. He looked around the cell for Broken Record and frowned. "Where the hell is he?"

"You looking for Broken Record, brat?" an old slave grumbled. His spit flew everywhere and almost made Luffy kick him into oblivion.

"Yeah, where is he?" the boy asked reluctantly.

"He was caught trying to sneak two life jackets into the storage room, that little dumbass!"

Luffy froze. Lifejackets? Where the hell did he manage to get those? "How did he get the lifejackets?"

"Don't even think about it!" the old man snorted. "They won't let slaves on the deck for another ten years, after this! Some ships arrived and Broken Record had the brilliant idea of finding the lifejackets instead of unloading the damn crates. I told him it was fucking stupid and he did it anyway. This is why you morons can't be left alone! You're always doing stupid fucking shit."

Lifejackets. The only reason Broken Record would get lifejackets is if he wanted to escape. "They caught him."

"Yeah, that's what I fucking said!" The old man went back to eating and aggressively muttered to himself.

Everyone knew what happened to slaves caught escaping.

Luffy collapsed, right there, right in front of the cell door. He fell onto his knees and his arms hung off his shoulders like string. His eyes were wide open yet his vision was blurry. He vaguely heard noises and words in the background but he couldn't focus. Everything was numb.

 _Tea was everywhere._

They were friends.

 _Nothing was broken._

Why did he do it?

 _He was on the ground._

That idiot.

 _And he waited._


	4. Chapter 4

**What did I do to deserve such kindness from strangers on the internet?**

* * *

"He's not gonna wake up any faster if you hover over him like a creep-yoi."

Thatch looked up at Marco with a half-hearted glare and huffed. "Shut it, Pineapple," he grumbled. "I'm just worried, okay? That hit on his head wasn't a joke." His eyes averted to look back at the boy wrapped in white sheets; Impossibly still.

Marco ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Just wait for him to wake up and think you're a molester-yoi," he teased with a miniscule quirk of his lips. Thatch's immediately disgusted and betrayed gasp and fallen expression made it difficult to hide his amusement. "I mean, I can't tell the difference-yoi."

"Marco!" Thatch cried out in horror. "I am appalled! I feel mentally and emotionally violated!"

"Good-yoi."

Thatch kept his whining to a minimum, only sending his companion one completely deadpan look before turning his attention to the dozens of other beds made from blankets and feather pillows. Half of them were already empty, which took a lot of the weight off of his heart. Even though he didn't know most of the people they saved, he still felt for every single one of them. Many of them had sustained terrible injuries and were almost starved to death. Thatch could barely understand how they were still alive and on their feet.

So far, they hadn't lost a single one of their brothers and sisters to injuries or sickness, though some of them were balancing on a very thin wire. Thatch's medical skills weren't exactly up to par – Marco only gave him permission to change a few bandages, at the most – so he could only cook some nutritious meals in hopes of contributing. It would've been nice if they had some nurses with them but it wasn't a regular occurrence for Pops to call them in the middle of a simple territory check-up mission and tell them to infiltrate the most heavily guarded government sanctuary in existence. The fact that it was the Domain of the Gods instead of Pangaea Castle didn't help as much as Thatch thought it would. Getting in while avoiding any detection was honestly one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of Thatch's life, only topped by getting out of that place before any larger reinforcements could stop them. He never planned on having to cram about seventy people onto a ship stocked for only two. It was only slightly okay because one of them was a very passionate food enthusiast who brought enough sustenance to feed seventy people anyway and the other was definitely a giant mother hen in denial who packed way more than they ever needed. Thankfully, a bigger supply ship was on its way with some helping hands. Bless Marco's caretaking abilities but they sadly weren't enough in some cases.

Marco's fist knocked against Thatch's skull, causing the latter man to yelp. "What the hell, pineapple!?"

"You were thinking too much-yoi," Marco explained nonchalantly. He firmly placed a hand on Thatch's shoulder. "Don't do that-yoi. What matters is that we got them back-yoi."

Thatch pursed his lips before shrugging off Marco's hand with a smile. "Yeah, you're right." He pushed himself off his stool and stretched out his arms. "I'm gonna go see what I can make for lunch. You work all of your medical magic stuff."

"It's not magic-yoi."

"Sure…"

* * *

Honestly, curse Thatch's bleeding heart. They had gone to Mariejois in order to rescue twenty-one of their brothers and sisters who were caught by slave traders. In the end, only eight of them were actually in the Domain of the Gods, Thatch had freed over sixty other slaves which just made it even harder to escape and jeopardized the entire mission, they had no idea where the rest of their siblings were scattered, they still had two more days until the supply ship would reach them, and Marco had the worst headache of his entire life. Not cool.

Marco looked down at the child and let out what seemed like his eighty-seventh sigh in the past three days. Even though he was annoyed with Thatch, he couldn't deny that he was somewhat relieved that they got so many slaves out of that place, especially when it came to the straw hat kid. The kid had it rough, to put it bluntly. They had found him in a completely dark room with a padlocked ironclad door and two soldiers standing guard, almost unmoving. The level of security for the solitary cell almost made it seem as if some rabid animal was trapped in there. It was highly disturbing to find a small boy lying on the ground in a pool of blood, throwing his shredded arms in the air as he heatedly conversed with a nonexistent voice who was seemingly accusing him of something he claimed he wasn't guilty of. The grotesque condition his body was in made Marco sick to his stomach. Just thinking about it made him want to hurl.

"Commander Marco?"

Marco was snapped out of his depressive thoughts by a rough voice. He turned his head to see one of his brothers standing next to him. The man's leg was heavily wrapped but he was able to limp around on it as long as he didn't place too much pressure on his wound. Marco had never learned the man's name. The most he could remember of his brother was a few glimpses here and there. The man looked at him expectantly and Marco realized he hadn't replied. "What is it-yoi?"

The man pursed his lips tightly before he stepped back and passionately bowed. "I'm sorry!" he announced with a strong voice. "I was placed in charge of the ship that was attacked by those slave traders and I wasn't strong enough to protect my other siblings. I place them all in immense danger because of my mistakes. I take full responsibility for what happened!"

Marco blinked, dumbfounded by the amount of vigor in the man's voice before he sighed for the eighty-eighth time. "I don't blame you for what happened-yoi. It was an unfortunate situation-yoi. You did your best to keep everyone out of harm's way-yoi. That's all I can ask for-yoi." He waved his hand as a signal for the man to lift his head. "I'm sure Pops feels the same way that I do-yoi. There's no need to bow to family-yoi."

The man nodded and stood up straight with a disconcerting amount of energy for someone who looked like death was just a few steps behind them. "Thank you, Commander! You're too forgiving!"

Marco couldn't help but feel amused. "Go see whatever the hell Thatch is making-yoi. Make sure everyone is able to at least grab a few bites-yoi."

"Yessir!"

Marco smiled softly as he watched the man limp towards the door. He turned his attention back to the kid before he suddenly thought of something. "Wait a sec-yoi," he called out and the man spun back around.

"Yes?"

"Do you know anything about this kid-yoi?" Marco inquired as he gestured to the straw hat boy. The man hummed as he made his way back to the bed and carefully considered the child's features.

"I've never seen him before," he replied with a shake of his head. "Where did you find him?"

"He was locked in this small room that I assume was solitary confinement-yoi," Marco said gravely, a frown marring his features. "I was hoping you would know what he was doing in there-yoi." He watched as his brother's eyes grew wide with realization. The man snapped his head back around to look at the kid with a startled gaze.

"You gotta be shitting me…" he muttered under his breath before he looked back to Marco. "If he was the one locked in solitary, then I've heard a few rumors. Apparently, he was locked up after he nearly killed two slaves. They hadn't let him out for almost a year. I never thought he would be this young, though."

"Holy shit-yoi," Marco breathed out. Great, they just brought a potential murderer onto the ship. Yay.

The man nervously smiled and rubbed under his chin with the back of his hand. "I mean, those are just rumors. The people who probably know what really happened are the bowls." Marco raised his eyebrow in confusion. "Oh, that's what we called the slaves who were separated for 'bad behavior'. I know it sounds kind of stupid. I guess it's just some old nickname that stuck around," the man explained with a shrug. "They were in that smaller cell near solitary."

Marco dipped his head in acknowledgment. "Thanks-yoi. You should get going, now-yoi."

"Aye, aye!" The man saluted and went on his way to the deck.

 _Looks like I need to hunt down some bowls-yoi,_ Marco concluded as he lazily stood himself up. "Oh, I can't wait until Thatch gets a load of this-yoi."

* * *

"Raise your hand if you don't have a plate!" Thatch shouted over the deck. When no one raised their hand, he let out a satisfied exhale. He carefully weaved through the crowd of slaves to on the ship railing. It was a comfort to feel the refreshing ocean wind in his back. Bittersweet joy swelled inside his chest when he remembered the absolute wonder that colored the faces of so many former slaves when they felt the same wind for the first time in years, almost as if they couldn't fathom the possibility that such a vast world still existed.

"Enjoying the wind?" Thatch looked over at a younger teen sitting at the base of the railing with his plate in hand. "I never thought I'd feel this wind again," he whispered as he tilted his head to the sky. "It's a damn miracle."

Thatch smiled as he watched the teen immerse himself in every aspect of the ocean. He suddenly looked too old, worn down by the cruelties of life. The tranquility that washed over his muscles felt like long-awaited relief for a battered soul. Thatch's smile lost some of its spark as he bared witness to a childhood that was stripped away too suddenly. His mind wandered to the straw hat boy lying in the infirmary, his face tense and guarded despite being unconscious. There was so much he didn't know and so much he wanted to understand. He wanted to help. Not just the boy but everyone they saved from that hellhole. He wanted to show them what freedom was really like. He wanted to give them a family, a home.

The teen rolled his head a little to the side to match Thatch's gaze. "Thank you." His voice mixed with the air so perfectly that Thatch could almost mistake it for his ears just messing with him. "It would take a lifetime to truly express the gratitude I feel. No one on this ship can thank you enough."

* * *

"You mean Luffy?"

"Luffy?"

"Yeah, his name," the young boy clarified. "It's Monkey D. Luffy. He's a weirdo."

Marco exhaled as he crouched down next to the boy and rested his arms on his knees. "Wanna tell me a little about him-yoi?"

"Other than the fact that he's a huge weirdo?" the boy asked skeptically. He shoveled a pile of rice and beans into his mouth. "I don't know what to tell you, man. He's just crazy. He's completely off his rocker."

"Yeah, how so-yoi?"

The boy scratched his cheek and tilted his head in thought. "I mean, he tried to kill two guys about seven months ago. That's something." He chuckled when he saw Marco's eyes widen by a fraction. "Why are you so surprised? Is it because he's little?"

"No. I just only heard rumors about that happening-yoi."

"Guy's a devil, that's for sure," he murmured with a humorless smile. "He's all…" The boy raised his hand up to the side of his head and knocked on his skull a few times. "You know? A bunch of maggots up there, eating away his sanity. I saw the aftermath and it wasn't pretty. That poker was fresh out of the fire when they got hit. Took a bunch of skin off and everything. Burnt an eye out too. They were beaten so bad that the nobles threw them out a few weeks later for being unfixable."

Marco brought his hand up to his chin in thought. "Do you know why he attacked those two slaves-yoi?"

"You need a reason?" the boy grumbled as he crossed his arms. "Does it matter? They basically died because of him."

"I was just curious-yoi."

The boy was clearly unamused but he bottled up his annoyance with an audible inhale. "I hate to admit it but I'm kind of curious as well. Luffy may have no problem with breaking bones but to actually try and murder someone…" He bit his lip before turning to face Marco. "Look, I'm not exactly sure why Luffy attacked them – like I said, I only saw the aftermath – but I'm guessing it has something to do with Broken Record."

"A broken record-yoi?" Marco muttered in confusion.

"It was our nickname for another slave who died a while ago," the boy explained. "He and Luffy were pretty close, at least I thought. I might've been one of the few to think that, though. Everyone else thought they were just trying to irritate each other to death. Broken Record was caught trying to sneak two life jackets off of a supply ship while he was clearing out crates. Everyone knows what happens to slaves who get caught trying to escape…" He looked distant for a moment before he regained his focus. "After that, Luffy was off. Some of the other slaves noticed it too."

"How was he off-yoi?"

The boy hesitantly shrugged. "I'm… not exactly sure. Once you're around him enough, you get comfortable. When something changes, you just know…" He lifted his fork to his lips and chewed on the metal. "There were some things that caught my attention though. I'm not sure if it was actually there or just me reaching but… Anyway, he just wasn't the same. I don't know what else to tell you."

Marco hung his head in defeat and pushed himself onto his feet. "That's fine. Thanks for the info, kid."

"Yeah, no problem," the boy replied. "Oh, one more thing!" Marco stopped mid-step and looked back at the boy who held up his fork with a tentative smile. "Thank you. For the food, I mean… And, uh, everything else. It really means a lot."

Marco's eyes softened and he returned the smile.

* * *

Thatch unraveled the stained bandages around the straw hat boy's arms and bit the inside of his cheek. "I wonder how long it'll take for these to heal…" he whispered as he held up an arm and inspected it.

It was as if someone took and grater and ran it through the kid's skin as hard as possible. Layers of muscle and tissue laid exposed and inflamed to a terrible degree. There wasn't any doubt of the possibility that an infection had been running its course for a painfully long time. Although Thatch knew he was swabbing the wounds as gently as his hands would allow him, he still felt a pang in his chest whenever he witnessed the grimace on the kid's face.

 _Who the hell is sick enough to do this to a child? To lock him up in a dark room and torture him like this. Can they even call themselves human?_ Thatch's jaw clenched and the smallest squeak squeezed out of the kid's vocal cords. Thatch looked down at the cotton pad in his hand and realized how harshly he was dragging it across the broken skin. "Ah, sorry," he said sheepishly, even though he knew the kid couldn't hear. "I'm really sorry."

* * *

"He almost cut my junk off!"

"He's threatened to castrate me at least thirty times? Maybe forty?"

"I'm tellin' ya, the kid's goin' after yer balls first…"

"I'd make a dick joke if I wasn't so terrified."

"Have you heard that the kid used to be a World Noble lapdog?"

 _Finally!_ Marco hummed and eagerly shook his head with intense interest. "No, I haven't. Care to elaborate?"

"It's been going around that he almost ripped Charloss' jewels off in the guy's sleep when he found out he was getting replaced!"

Marco let out a tasteless half laugh at the ridiculous rumor. _I am not liking this picture, Thatch._

* * *

Thatch let out a satisfied exhale as he looked down at his handiwork. He was no nurse, but the kid's bandages were wrapped nicely and he looked a lot more comfortable. Well, as comfortable as he could get with the infection and all. Thatch cleaned up the supplies dumped it all into a bag.

"Time to bring in the food." Thatch hauled the bag over his shoulder and made his way towards the door.

"Why are you so concerned about the kid?"

Thatch turned his head to look down at a young man covered in gauze and tape, laying casually on his mat. "Why shouldn't I be?"

The young man inflated his cheeks and blew air in a dismissive manner. "Oh, I don't know. It's just that he's not what you think he is," he chimed whimsically.

"Oh really?" Thatch returned skeptically. "And what do I think he is?"

The man tilted his head side to side while whistling, his eyes searching around the room. "Poor, innocent, undeserving of such cruel fate!" His mocking tone grated on Thatch's nerves but he didn't act on his growing vexation. These people have been through a lot. It wasn't fair to start antagonizing them.

"Then what is he actually?"

The man stopped his careless act and his eyes landed sharply on the straw hat boy's bed. A shiver fell down Thatch's spine at the sight of such contempt. The man's lip curled and he practically snarled, "A damn brat."

* * *

"Oh, the brat's completely insane."

"Is that so?" Marco sat down next to a gruff looking older guy who probably used to have a figure worthy of envy before he was starved into looking like a twig with legs.

"Oh yeah," the older man reiterated as he ripped a piece of meat off of a bone. "He used to threaten to kill everyone around him and crazy shit like that. Used to think he was a good kid at heart but I stopped thinking that after he almost broke my wrist."

Marco would have doubted that such a small child would intentionally break someone's wrist but, after talking to so many people, he was starting to believe it. "Why did he almost break your wrist-yoi? Did you do something to him-yoi?"

A small snort left the older man's nose as his lips betrayed a rueful smile. "I might've pulled his strings a little bit. He don't quite know how to follow orders, always got into trouble. They hit him a lot and he'd scream. Told him he sounded like a dying squirrel." He threw his head back with a harsh laugh and Marco tried not to grimace at the obvious falsity and sharpness of the sound. "I knew better than to do that a second time." He gestured down below with a wince. "After that, I never heard him scream again."

"I'm starting to sense a theme-yoi."

"Yeah, little bastard got kicked around a lot…"

Marco frowned as studied the older man's amused expression. It was irksome to listen to such a lax tone as they discussed such a serious and frankly disgusting issue. It seemed like no one really cared that they basically turned a kid into some violent sociopath. "Did he ever attack people without being provoked-yoi?"

"Tons of times!" the man shouted in exasperation. "See that brat over there?" He pointed halfway across the deck to an extremely paranoid looking man with hollows for eyes who was probably in his late twenties. "Monkey gave that guy three broken ribs for laughing at his weird ass green and purple face. He'd smash up a bunch of slaves just because they said he was wimpy or some other shit."

"That's provoking him-yoi."

"Yeah, whatever."

Marco rolled his eyes. "I heard that he used to be Charloss' slave-yoi. Know anything about that-yoi?"

The older man twitched which immediately piqued Marco's interest. "Yeah, tons," the man grumbled. "The brat don't like us talking about that demon. That's the only thing I can't blame him for. Saw him every now and then, scrambling down the halls like a scared dog. He looked… very different." There was a solemn silence before the man huffed. "That don't mean he wasn't a stupid brat when Charloss finally got rid of him! Took a while for that little shit to show his real colors but I knew there was something weird about him. It only makes sense that anyone connected to those bastard nobles are also scum, right?"

Marco's eyes narrowed but he remained silent.

* * *

It was a struggle to pry the infirmary door open with a plate of food in both hands but Thatch eventually managed. He made his way over to the straw hat boy's makeshift bed, where Marco was sitting. Thatch handed Marco his plate before he plopped down onto the hardwood floor with a pout.

"You stole my stool," he complained as he stabbed a piece of potato with his fork.

"Hah? Are you serious-yoi?"

"What? I like that stool."

Marco pitched the bridge of his nose in annoyance and sighed for the eighty-ninth time. "You're such a child-yoi." He barely spared Thatch's self-satisfied grin a glance. "I found out some stuff about the kid-yoi."

That managed to grab Thatch's attention. He swallowed his potatoes and looked at Marco expectantly. "Hit me."

"Your kid might be a complete psychopath-yoi." Thatch raised a disbelieving eyebrow at his brother. Marco could feel another headache incoming. "I had a talk with a few people and he's got quite the reputation-yoi. His name is Monkey D. Luffy-yoi. He tried to murder two of his fellow slaves by bashing their heads in with a fire poker about seven months ago and got thrown into solitary because of it-yoi. He's been trapped in there ever since-yoi."

"The door was never opened?" Thatch asked, feeling increasingly more disturbed by the second.

"They only opened the door to throw in bread every three days and maybe give him a bowl of water-yoi. Other than that, no contact with anyone for over half a year-yoi," Marco confirmed coldly, although Thatch could see how badly the information bothered him as well. "Before that, he was part of this group that the other slaves called the bowls-yoi. Don't ask me about the name-yoi." Thatch's mouth snapped shut. "They're slaves who were separated from the others because they weren't willing to be completely obedient-yoi. As punishment, they had to face regular and brutal beatings on top of being given the most mind-numbing tasks possible-yoi. Luffy was known for being outwardly violent and vulgar-yoi. Most of the bowls have at least been injured by him more than once-yoi. Even before that, it's rumored that he used to be Charloss' dog and he allegedly tried to castrate the guy in his sleep when he found out he was getting thrown into the dungeons-yoi."

"Hold up," Thatch cut in as he held up his hand. "If I abuse my suspension of disbelief I might believe everything you've said up until the last part but castrating a world noble? That's really stretching it. I mean, he'd be dead if he tried to do that."

"I agree but it still shows that this kid is no joke-yoi," Marco warned. "That rumor wouldn't exist if people didn't believe he was capable of it-yoi."

"Monkey D. Luffy, huh?" Thatch murmured as he turned his attention to the straw hat boy. "Doesn't it sound familiar? Where have I heard the name Monkey D. Luffy before?"

Marco furrowed his eyebrows in thought before he hesitantly nodded. "Now that I think about it, it does sound familiar-yoi. I can't be sure, though-yoi. It might just be some weird deja-vu moment-yoi."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Thatch sighed and scooped a lump of rice onto his fork. _Monkey D. Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy… Monkey… Monkey…_ He absentmindedly opened his mouth before a cohesive thought could even pass through his mind. "Monkey D. Garp." As soon as he uttered out the name, he felt goosebumps pull at his skin and his face drained of all color. It took Marco a few seconds to process what the other had said but soon the two brothers were equally as horrified by the shit load of nope they had just landed themselves in.

When Garp's grandson had gone missing, the whole world had known about it in less than a day. The man's rampage in the East Blue could've been heard from halfway across New World. For the next two years, Garp had stormed the seas ten times over like a mad dog in search of his beloved grandson. Anyone and anything that stood in his way was immediately terminated from existence. The havoc he wreaked on countless islands was so devastating that the world government was still compensating for the damages, almost seven years after the disappearance. It took the combined efforts of the Vice Admirals, the three Admirals, the threat of multiple buster calls at the same time, and Sengoku's lifetime supply of willpower to finally make the Marine Hero back down. Even then, Thatch wasn't exactly convinced that the old bastard wasn't hiding out in an underground lair covered wall to wall in old newspaper clippings and red string. So, not only was Garp batshit insane, they currently had the source of Garp's insanity right on their tiny ship in the middle of the ocean without any backup for another two days.

 _Fuck_.


	5. Chapter 5

**I never understood flames. Aren't they just extra reviews to make your story seem more popular than it actually is?**

* * *

Thatch didn't know what to expect when Luffy woke up. Probably a lot of pain and disorientation. He would definitely be extremely confused with the sudden change in surroundings. He had been stuck in a dark room for seven months. The influx of visual information might overwhelm him. The boy's mental stability was also a complete mystery so there really was no accurate way to predict his reaction. According to almost everyone on the ship, Luffy was some sort of violent animal with little to no remorse for any of his actions. He had no qualms with injuring those around him and basically caused the death of two slaves. So when one of the former slaves dragged him into the infirmary with incredible urgency, repeating, "The brat's awake! The brat's awake!" Thatch mentally prepared himself for some sort of outburst.

The boy almost pulled his own eye straight out of his head.

Thatch rushed over to stop whatever the hell the boy was trying to do because what the actual fuck? As he drew closer he noticed an alarming about of blood streaming down Luffy's arm as his fingers dug deeper into the crevasses of his eye socket. As Thatch sat down in front of the boy, his first instinct was to rip the hand away. However, he stopped himself when he noticed his existence wasn't even acknowledged. Even when he was so close, Luffy was in his own little world. Who knew what would happen if Thatch startled him out of it by yanking his arm. The older man opted for carefully wrapping his hand around the boy's wrist and moving the hand away as gently as he possibly could.

Luffy didn't seem to notice until he tried to blink the blood away from his left eye only to flinch. He stared down at his stained hand with the most effective poker face Thatch has seen in quite sometime before his gaze cautiously shifted to assess the hand around his wrist.

"This doesn't make any sense…"

Thatch frowned as he let his hand fall from the boy's wrist. "What?"

Luffy's eyebrows furrowed as he held his wrist up to his working eye. He examined it for what seemed like an eternity before his eye flicked up to look at Thatch. He raised his hand up to the man's face and waited. Thatch looked at the hand for a moment before he shifted his focus down to Luffy. The boy looked at him with a strange mix of confusion and some sort of expectation. Thatch hesitantly raised his hand to hold the boy's wrist again, unsure if he was reading the situation correctly. The moment he made contact, Luffy's arm began to shake. His head hung as he curled in on himself. Thatch immediately let go of the boy's wrist, sure that he had just screwed everything up by misinterpreting the gesture, but Luffy grabbed his hand with enough force that his knuckles cracked. The shaking in the boy's arm spread through his entire body to the point that it was crippling. Despite how small Luffy made his body, his grip on Thatch's hand only grew stronger. The older man just sat there, frozen to the bone. He had absolutely no idea how to help without making things worse. He debated whether to try and comfort the boy but he didn't want to find out how the other would react.

Thank the stars, the man that dragged Thatch into the makeshift infirmary burst in again with Marco in tow. Thatch sent Marco a pleading look as he subtly shook his trapped hand to indicate the predicament he was in. Marco let out a sigh and sat down next to Thatch. He sent Thatch a questioning glance in regards to the state of Luffy's left eye while the other man shook his head urgently and scrunched up his shoulders. He gestured for Marco to help him but they were both equally lost. Marco pinched the bridge of his nose and drew in a deep breath.

"Luffy-yoi?"

The boy tensed at the sound of his name but said nothing. Thatch exchanged a worried glance with Marco before wincing from Luffy's hand tightening even further. The tips of his fingers began to turn purple from lack of blood flow and Thatch could feel the pins and needles in his skin. Marco pursed his lips before trying again.

"Your name is Luffy, right-yoi?" Marco asked, using the least volatile voice he could possibly muster. "Monkey D. Garp's grandson-yoi?" He paused for a moment to see if the boy would show any response. Again, nothing. "I know this might be a little overwhelming so I'm going to give you a rundown about what's going on-yoi." He took in another breath before continuing. "I'm Marco and the one whose hand you're squeezing is Thatch-yoi. We're both commanders under Whitebeard-yoi. You've been asleep for about five days-yoi. I'm not sure if you can remember but you and many other former slaves escaped from Mariejois-yoi."

There was another moment of silence before Luffy's death grip on Thatch's hand slowly loosened until he was just hanging on by the tips of his fingers. "You're not real," the boy finally whispered. He covered his face with his free hand and let out a shaky chuckle. "Fuck, this doesn't make any sense."

Marco shot Thatch an alarmed look at the statement but Thatch had no explanation. Thatch moved his hand to make a gesture only for Luffy to suddenly pull his own hand away as if a fire had started in the older man's palm. Thatch was caught between apologizing or staying as still as possible to prevent another mistake. He held his hands up in surrender when Marco sent him an unamused frown.

"This doesn't make sense," Luffy muttered as his palms pressed against his eyes. "You're not real. Why can I touch you? This doesn't make sense. I can't stay. I gotta get out." His fingers began to dig into his skin, closer and closer to his eye. Marco reacted immediately, grabbing the boy's hand and yanking it away. Luffy stared at Marco in shock for a moment before he tried to pull his hand out of the grip to no avail. He sent the older man an icy glare that made Thatch shiver. Marco, however, remained unwavering.

"I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish by hurting yourself but it won't work-yoi," Marco stated. Luffy responded by flipping him off and pulling even harder.

"Fuck you, let me go," the boy growled as he used his other hand to try and pry Marco's fingers away from him. "Let go of me!"

"Luffy, just listen-"

"Let go of me before I fucking bite your head off and throw your body into a fire, you pineapple-looking piece of shit!"

Marco's grip only slightly loosened from surprise but he quickly tightened it again before the boy could wiggle free. He held out his other hand and gestured steadily in an attempt to calm the boy down without touching him. "Luffy, I promise you that you're not dreaming or whatever you think you're doing-yoi. This is real-yoi."

"That's what they always say!" Luffy spat as he bared his teeth ferally. "I don't know how you can touch me but this doesn't change anything! I know this isn't real! It can't be real!" He began to push against the blankets underneath him with his feet with the full intent of ripping himself away even if it meant using up all of the energy left in his body. "I know how to escape! You can't stop me from escaping!" The bandages started to unravel from Luffy's arm as he continued to pull and pull until his arm stretched a meter long and his back hit the wall. The white silence was suffocating. Luffy scrutinized his arm as if he had just witnessed the most horrifying thing in his entire life.

Marco was the first to break the tension. "You ate a devil fruit-yoi," he observed, completely struck by the new information. Luffy seemed equally if not more shocked as they were and his breathing started to shrink into shallow gasps.

Thatch was the first to react. He tapped Marco's hand and his brother let go of Luffy's wrist. The boy's stretched arm immediately snapped back into place but the stress placed on his skin had opened up his wounds and blood poured from them without obstruction. Thatch cautiously got closer to Luffy and held out his hand.

"Hey," Thatch started hesitantly, "sorry about that. We just don't want you to hurt yourself. Marco's kind of an idiot sometimes." He stretched out his hand a little more so it would catch Luffy's attention. "You don't have to be scared anymore. You're safe here."

"They always say that," Luffy murmured as he pressed himself into the wall in order to maintain the distance between himself and Thatch's hand.

 _Who's they?_ Thatch frowned and inched his hand a little closer to the boy. "Luffy, can you hold my hand again?" The boy shook his head but Thatch didn't back down. "Please? I promise I won't hurt you. I didn't hurt you before, did I?"

Luffy seemed to weigh his options before he shakily reached out with his left hand. He flinched before his fingertips could touch Thatch's and his fingers curled away. He remained in a frozen state for what seemed like an eternity. His arm trembled as his hand hovered just a centimeter away. Thatch tried to send Luffy a reassuring look but the boy's gaze burned into the back of his hand as if the entire world had fallen away and it was just him and his raging thoughts. Finally, Luffy's fingers stretched out and laid on top of the man's palm. His breath caught in his throat and he stared at the point of contact before his gaze shifted to acknowledge Thatch, who just smiled as naturally as possible.

"See? It doesn't hurt, does it?" Luffy chewed on his lip and shook his head. Thatch made sure to remain as still as possible as to not scare the boy again. "Do you feel anything?"

Luffy's eyebrows furrowed as he tentatively wrapped his hand around Thatch's open palm. "It's warm," he mumbled, "and uncomfortable. Feels like sand." He didn't seem to pay any mind to Thatch's small chuckle.

"Those are just callouses. I'm real, Luffy," Thatch stated. "So is Marco. This is real." Thatch waited patiently for a response that he knew he wouldn't receive, judging by how engrossed the boy was with shifting his grip on Thatch's hand. He was trapped in his own mind, unable to pay attention to anything around him. Thatch felt a pang in his chest as he focused on Luffy's frustrated and weary expression. _Please believe me. I want to help. Let me help._

Luffy just let out a sigh as his eyelids hung low. "I'm tired." His hand slipped from Thatch's palm and he collapsed onto the blankets beneath him.

* * *

Thatch found Marco sitting on the lookout. He climbed up the ladder in order to join his brother as he surveyed the sea. "I tried to contact Pops but the line was dead again."

Marco hummed in acknowledgment. "The supply ship should be arriving today so it's best to wait it out, for now." Thatch nodded and stood next to his brother. "I was stupid-yoi," Marco grumbled. "I shouldn't have grabbed him like that-yoi."

Thatch offered the man empathetic eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He was trying to pull his eye out. I don't think there was any better way to stop him besides knocking him out." He sat down next to Marco and looked up at the sky. "Why do you think he tried to do that in the first place?"

Marco paused to think about the question before he pursed his lips. "I'm not sure-yoi. Maybe it has something to do with him escaping-yoi."

"Escaping?"

"He mentioned knowing how to get out and how this wasn't real life-yoi," Marco said. "It might be a bit of a stretch but he might not be entirely anchored in reality-yoi."

Thatch frowned but found himself agreeing with Marco's theory. "He kept saying something about 'they' but I had no idea what that meant. Maybe it has something to do with that." He scratched the back of his neck. "If he was so willing to just hurt himself like that, do you think he's the one that messed up his arms too?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case-yoi," Marco replied somberly. "People are fragile things-yoi."

The two remained in silence for the rest of the morning.

* * *

Marco thanked the stars when the supply ship finally arrived. They were almost out of food and clean water and the deck was so crowded it was nearly impossible to take a step without kicking someone. Now that they were spread out over two ships, it was a lot easier to breathe. Thatch cried an embarrassing amount when he finally had more ingredients than just potatoes and salt and immediately rushed to the kitchen to make some "real food". Marco had no idea how the man could've sobbed out twice his body mass in tears and he didn't want to find out. He wouldn't lie, he was just as relieved, but he had a much steadier grip on his emotions. There were a bunch of helping hands with the necessary supplies to look after everyone's injuries and health issues, which just added to that relief. Namur was also there, much to Marco's surprise. He informed them that Pops thought it was best for the supply ship to be more secure in case of any unexpected confrontations, which Marco agreed with. Thank Pops for thinking ahead.

"Pops is on his way. We're going to meet him halfway," Namur explained. "He was slowed down by some idiot marines but they should be alright. A new rear admiral was too cocky for his own good." He reached into his pocket and took out a piece of parchment with some numbers. "Pops assumed you probably contacted us a few times in the past few days but our old Den Den Mushi got knocked in the head and we lost the numbers with its memory because of a certain reckless flame-head. This is the new number."

Marco smirked at Namur's annoyed yet fond tone. "Thanks, Namur-yoi," he said gratefully as he took the parchment and put it in his own pocket. "How long is it going to take for us to get back to the Moby Dick-yoi?"

"Probably another two days," Namur replies with a shrug. "There shouldn't be much trouble between now and then. The waters were clear on the route we took."

"That's good-yoi." Marco didn't feel at peace for too long before a looming thought crawled its way back into his head. "Namur, I'm going to tell you something," he warned a little reluctantly, "but you have to promise to not freak out-yoi."

Namur clearly didn't take Marco's words very seriously as he shrugged nonchalantly. "Depends on what it is."

"We have Monkey D. Luffy on our ship-yoi."

It took a moment, but Namur's brain eventually caught up with his ears and he choked on his own spit. "W-What?"

"Monkey D. Luffy is on our ship-yoi."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, I'm just debating on whether you're going crazy or not," Namur grumbled as he recovered from his coughing fit. "Are you sure? How do you know it's him? The kid's been missing for almost seven years!"

"It was confirmed by several slaves and he fits the description pretty well-yoi," Marco reasoned.

"Really? Tiny kid with messy black hair, a smile that takes up half his face, a scar under his left eye with-"

"-Two stitch-like lines through it, probably injured in some way from being an idiot, and an ugly-ass straw hat on his head-yoi," Marco finished. Garp had beaten the image of his grandson into their heads without mercy. It would be forever imprinted into Marco's frontal lobe. "The kid fits the bill besides the smile part-yoi."

Namur rubbed his forehead with his hand and furrowed his brow. "Shit. Monkey D. Luffy on our ship, huh? This is a nightmare." Although Namur's face was usually trapped in a constant scowl, Marco could tell how stressed the fishman actually was. Rescuing a marine war hero's grandson from the Domain of Gods wasn't an everyday occurrence.

"I was thinking we'd see what Luffy wants before anything else happens-yoi. He might want to go back home or something like that-yoi. If he doesn't say anything, Thatch and I decided to see how Pops would handle this situation-yoi," Marco informed with a sigh. He really needed to start controlling how much he sighed; it couldn't be healthy. "To be honest, all the plans Thatch and I could agree on were not very ideal-yoi. They involve Garp in some way and that man would rather burn us to the bottom of the ocean than listen to an explanation for why we have his grandson on our ship-yoi. If you have any ideas, that would be great-yoi."

Namur let out a grunt before he shook his head. "I trust your judgment, Marco. If you want to follow the kid's wishes, that's fine. If you think Pops would have the best solution, we should wait until the rendezvous."

Marco let out another sigh—seriously, how many times as he sighed on this mission—and nodded. "Alright. Hopefully, we can figure something out."

Namur fidgetted slightly before he tilted his head. "Is it possible for me to see the boy?"

"Ah…" Marco resisted the urge to cringe as he remembered the events that transpired earlier. "You see, that's gonna be a little difficult-yoi. He wasn't exactly in the right state of mind when he first woke up and he ended up passing out this morning-yoi. He hasn't woken up since then-yoi."

Namur raised his brow in confusion. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"He doesn't think any of this is real-yoi," Marco explained. "He kept saying that this wasn't real and that he knew how to escape-yoi. He even nearly pulled his eye out with his own hands-yoi. I think Thatch got through to him in the end, but there's no telling since he passed out-yoi. He's not stable, Namur-yoi." Marco wanted to spare his brother the details of the kid's deformed arms and the morphed personality he had developed but the fishman would find out, soon enough. It would be best to brace him for an eventuality. "Namur, you're probably going to meet him when he wakes up-yoi. What I just told you is the tip of the iceberg-yoi."

"Holy hell," Namur muttered, "what more could there be?"

So Marco told Namur everything: the state Marco and Thatch found the kid in when they raided the Domain of Gods, how the mark on his back was so gnarled that it made him sick to his stomach, how resentful the other former slaves were towards him, how dangerously brutal he had become, the surprise devil fruit, how terrified and full of hatred his eye was when he threatened Marco, everything. By the end of it, Namur was speechless. The two stood there, waiting for the other to say something. Eventually, Namur let out a sigh of his own and rubbed his temple.

"I need to tell Pops about this. He's going to need a heads up."

"Yeah, it's for the best-yoi," Marco agreed.

Namur let out a humorless chuckle and turned around to get his Den Den Mushi from the cabin. "Damn, he's gonna have a field day with this."

* * *

"Achoo! Goddamnit!" Crates toppled to the ground, nearly hitting their carrier as they fell. Ace wiped his nose on the back of his hand and growled at his snickering crewmates. "I swear, if one of you bastards is talking behind my back, I'll set you on fire!"

"More like you're going to set your crates on fire," Sabo said as he smacked his brother on the back. He laughed as Ace elbowed his arm away before a thought popped into his head. "Oh, Namur should've reached Marco and Thatch by now. Maybe he's telling them about the Den Den Mushi situation."

"Hey, that wasn't my-"

"Yes, it was."

"... Okay, it was."

"I thought so," Sabo replied smugly, much to the entertainment of the people around them. Ace continued to grumble curses as he picked up his dropped crates one by one and placed them on his shoulders. Sabo resisted the urge to tease his brother and went back to rolling his line of barrels across the deck. "Speaking of the others, I wonder how they're doing. I hope they didn't run into any trouble, especially from those marines."

Ace tried to shrug but nearly destroyed his perfect balance of crates in the process. "Nah, we kicked their asses. There's no way they'd be stupid enough to pick a fight straight after."

A crewmate snorted as he mounted a sack of supplied over his shoulder. "After you set their ship on fire, they won't be able to pick another fight in a while."

Sabo let out a dry chuckle as he remembered the hellfire Ace had rained down during the battle. However, no matter how flashily Ace had been, he still didn't hold a candle to the raw destruction brought upon the warship by the commanders. Those guys were truly in a different league. Pops didn't even have to move a single finger the entire time. Proof that monsters really did exist in real life.

"Namur is fine," Ace assured. "I bet he's gonna call any minute."

Right on cue, Pops's Den Den Mushi rang in the background. The crewmembers around Ace turned to give him a look and the man offered a nonchalant smirk. Although Sabo continued on with his job, he couldn't help but listen in on the call. He knew all the others were doing the same, so he didn't think much of it. Some things were a little muffled but he got the gist of the conversation. Namur had safely met up with Thatch and Marco, they were on their way back to the Moby Dick, Thatch bawled his eyes out at the sight of simple spices, Marco was in desperate need of a vacation, and there were about seventy former slaves waiting to join them or go home. It was a pretty light-hearted conversation so Sabo was sure that everything was going well.

"Pops, there's also something else."

"What is is, Namur?"

"Monkey D. Luffy is here."

Sabo immediately stopped in his tracks. _Did… I hear that right?_ He turned his head to the side to see Ace completely frozen. All Sabo could focus on was how wide his eyes were, like a deer centimeters away from the barrel of a musket. Sabo stiffly turned his head farther to see Pops's apprehensive expression as he held his Den Den Mushi.

"Are you sure that Monkey D. Luffy is on your ship?"

"I haven't seen him yet but Marco and Thatch have. They've already confirmed it with several former slaves. He fits the description almost perfectly, too. They don't seem to have any doubt that the kid's the real deal."

Sabo heard his crewmates chatter around him, but it all fell away. His only concern was Ace. He remembered what happened the day Garp found out about Luffy's disappearance. The image of a once thriving jungle utterly devastated by a single man was still fresh in his mind. He knew how Ace felt about the situation, how he desperately wanted to forget. He never wanted to see Ace like that ever again. But there they were, eleven-years-old, Ace so heavily crushed by guilt that escape seemed impossible and all Sabo could do was watch.

* * *

The second time Luffy woke up was a lot less dramatic. The kid just lied in bed for a solid five minutes of deafening silence and Marco, Thatch, and Namur sat next to his makeshift bed, waiting for his to say something. The kid finally turned his head to look Namur up and down before he sat up and scratched the back of his head. "You weirdos keep multiplying like fucking cockroaches."

Well, that was one way to start a conversation.

Luffy brushed the back of his hand against his eye only to find it was covered by gauze and tape. His expression twisted in confusion and he reached to peel the tape away before his gaze flickered over to the commanders. It took all of Marco's willpower to not instantly grab Luffy's wrist again. The kid seemed to notice how tense he was but it only furthered his confusion. He let his hand fall away from his face and rest on his lap with a small thud. He had a stuck look in his eye as if he had just remembered something devastatingly important. Marco had to force himself not to hold his breath in anticipation.

"So," Luffy began, "you-you're real." He pointed at Thatch who just nodded in affirmation. He looked over Marco and scowled. "You're also real," he confirmed reluctantly. His focus then turned to Namur and his hand lowered. "You're…" he reached over to touch Namur with his palm but only made it halfway before he flinched and recoiled his fingers. Namur waited patiently for Luffy's verdict. It took half a minute for Luffy to reach out again but Namur hasn't shifted at all. He could make stone jealous with how still he was. Marco was almost impressed with how calm the fishman seemed. Then again, his expressions were harder to read than most.

Luffy shivered when he touched Namur's skin but he didn't back away. "You're cold." He grabbed Namur's hand and glared at it with all his might. "Seriously, what the hell? Why are you so fucking cold?"

"Fishmen have a different regular body temperature from humans," Namur explained. "That, and I have bad circulation."

Luffy just frowned at him and let go of his hand. "You're real, too." He cupped his face in his palms and let out a frustrated groan. "Shit, my head's gonna explode. What the hell is going on?"

"Do you remember the brief rundown I gave you when you woke up-yoi?" Marco questioned.

"Yeah, I remember, pineapple-face," Luffy shot back, although the bite was missing. "I'm not stupid like you." He rubbed his eye with the heel of his palm and shook his head. "Why am I so tired?"

"You lost a lot of blood from your arms and your eye-yoi," Marco said as he eyed the bandages. They were going to bleed through if Luffy didn't stop moving them around. "You're probably going to be tired and dizzy for a while-yoi.

"Oh," Luffy sounded simply. There was a pause before he growled, "What're you crowding around me for? There's more of these shitheads around than just me, y' know! Go hassle one of them!"

Marco's gaze flickered over towards the other two before he turned back towards the kid. "Luffy, we need to talk about something-yoi," he stated. The kid immediately fidgeted but he didn't say anything. "You've been missing for about seven years and your grandfather has been looking for you ever since-yoi. We need to know what you want to do-yoi. We could drop you off at your home island or we could find Garp and you two could reunite on the spot-yoi. We'll have to wait to meet up with Pops though-yoi."

Luffy started to chew on his lower lip once Marco mentioned Garp. He didn't stop until the corner of his mouth was raw and red, ready to burst in his teeth. However, he didn't seem worried or scared. He was angry. His eye glowed from the raging fire burning behind his eye socket and it made the kid seem more alive than he'd ever been. An organic machine kept running through pure spite alone. "Keep me away from that shitty old geezer," he spat with enough venom to kill a seaking. "Anything else?"

 _Well, that's an interesting development,_ Marco mental noted. "Sorry, kid-yoi. If you don't want to see Garp, the next best option is to see what Pops thinks is best-yoi. We'll have to wait to meet up with the Moby Dick-yoi."

"Great, do whatever you want," Luffy muttered as he waved his hand for them to get lost. "I love being kidnapped from my island by weird men who'll decide my fate only to be bought by weird men who'll decide my fate only to be kidnapped again by weird men who'll decide my fate and taken to another weird man who'll decide my fate. Fantastic."

… Was there anything appropriate to say to that?

Thatch broke through the tension by clearing his throat. "Well, I made a few different meals for lunch. You must be hungry after being out for so long. There's egg salad, baked tofu with sweet sauce, and garlic butter steak. They're in the kitchen, so I'll just bring whatever you want. Take your pick."

Luffy looked at Thatch strangely before he averted his gaze. He let out a small exhale and shrugged. "Meat, I guess."

* * *

Thatch watched anxiously as Luffy sluggishly chewed on his steak. He had warned the boy that eating too quickly could upset his stomach but he couldn't help feeling worried. As Luffy swallowed his first bite, Thatch swallowed along with him out of nervousness. Thatch began to shift as the boy stared down at the food contemplatively long enough to make the man break out into a sweat.

Luffy dumped the entire plate into his mouth.

Thatch watched in awe as the boy chewed for perhaps two seconds before swallowing it whole. He could see the food travel down Luffy's thin neck before it disappeared into his stomach. The boy looked down at his plate, then to Thatch, before looking away and holding out his plate with both hands. They were shaking. His entire body was shaking. Thatch suddenly remembered what happened when Luffy first woke up, when he grabbed Thatch's hand and trembled like a shriveled leaf in the wind. He was sure that the boy would start crying but it never happened. He just kept his head down and shivered. Crying was a form of weakness he wouldn't allow himself to show. A sign of the trust Thatch hasn't earned yet, the trust he might never earn. Thatch waited for a moment before he took the plate with sad eyes.

"Thanks," Luffy said under his breath, so low that he probably hadn't planned for Thatch to hear it.

But Thatch did hear. The corners of his eyes crinkled as a smile founds its way onto his face. Maybe he would never earn Luffy's trust, but he was damn well going to make sure that he helped the boy to the best of his abilities, just like everyone else on the two ships. That was a promise. "You're welcome."

* * *

Luffy didn't know what to think about his sudden freedom. _Is freedom even the right word?_ he brooded as he scrunched up his nose. He didn't feel very free. Maybe it would come around and smack him in the face and he would have a giant emotional breakdown over how amazing it was to be on the sea and feel the wind in his face and whatever cheesy crap he could think of but he couldn't imagine something like that happening any time soon. The "doctors" wouldn't even let him get out of bed so he had no idea whether the ocean even felt free anymore. Maybe it was just all in his head. He remembered turning his back to it a long time ago.

Luffy reached out to grab the straw hat lying next to him and held it up over his face. He really didn't want to think about his promise to Shanks but his mind was so empty now. All the stuff he wished he could forget just flooded his brain. Stuff from the past, stuff that could've been, stuff that pissed him off which included the stuff from the past.

" _You've been missing for about seven years and your grandfather has been looking for you ever since-yoi."_

Luffy felt the sudden need to bash his skull into a brick wall and give himself amnesia. Clearly, the old bastard hadn't been searching hard enough. Either that or he was so far up the World Government's ass that he missed all the clues that led to Mariejois. The idiotic piece of processed horse diarrhea that bought him for his ugly whale of a son had to sign a document and pay the slave traders at Sabaody so what the hell had that stupid old geezer done for the past seven years? _Or he just got bribed into allowing the slave trade just like every other shitty marine out there._ Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. His faith in any marine has long since faded into irrelevance. If he had the chance, he would sock every last one of those shits in the face.

He's under eyelid twitched when he felt something stab into his palm and brought his hand up to the light. He winced when a drop of crimson liquid fell onto his brow. _Fuck, I really need to stop doing that._ He's already tried to convince himself that everything was real for the past few hours. It was strange to look around the room and not have the shadows crowd around him with malicious chants hidden by sweet and comforting words meant to lure him into a false sense of security. It was strange to not feel the sense of urgency that screamed at him to get out before they trapped him in that void for good. It was strange to not be reminded about how sick he was and how there was something inside him rotting away. Everything was just strange.

Maybe freedom was supposed to feel strange. It had to feel strange to have complete autonomy over oneself. What could someone do with all that initiative? They'd eventually run out of a purpose. There was no threat of getting beaten for looking at someone the wrong way and no orders from those with more power to follow. There was no more autopilot mode where his brain just shut down and let his body do whatever it needed to do in order to survive. How did people handle it? How did he handle it before?

Luffy wiped the blood off of his face and smeared his stained hand across the blankets. Unfortunately, one of the "doctors" noticed and started to freak out. The "doctor" grabbed his hand and began scolding him but he didn't listen. He just stared at the bandages on his forearms with weary eyes. _Did I ever handle it?_ _I can't remember anymore._


	6. Chapter 6

**Imagine what would happen if I suddenly made Luffy in character...**

* * *

"Did ye hear? The brat's awake now."

"Yeah, I heard. Everyone's heard. 'S not news anymore."

"Jesus, yer not a talker are ya'."

"Wha' do you want, old man."

"Ah say we dump 'im overboard. He's gonna sink like a hammer, ya?"

"Wow, you actually have good ideas. Huh."

"Oi quit insultin' me-"

"There's not going to be any attempted murder on this ship-yoi." The two men immediately zipped up at Marco's address. The younger one looked away and ate his food while the older one let out a hesitant chuckle. Marco's eyes narrowed and he emphasized, "I'm serious-yoi. No one's throwing anyone overboard-yoi."

The older man let out a sigh and shook his head. "Ye really have no idea wha' the kid's like, do ye."

"I know enough-yoi," Marco replied. "And I know that I won't let anything happen to him-yoi."

The old man snorted. "Y' know why he was really locked up, commander?"

That caught Marco's attention. He furrowed his eyebrows and crouched down. "What do you mean-yoi? He nearly killed two people and got thrown in-yoi."

"Hah, like that's the case," the old man scoffed. "Them damn celestials would gladly let us kill each other. Saves 'em from the dirty work ah ge'in rid of us themselves. They woulda' let 'im out after a week. Nah, the brat did somethin' worse."

"Then what did he do-yoi?" Marco questioned. What could be worse than nearly beating two people to death with a fire poker? Why hadn't anyone told him? Surely the other former slaves had also known about this information. What happened to make them stay quiet? He watched with anticipation as the old man licked his lips and drew in a heavy breath.

"Don't know."

 _What._

Marco nearly strangled the man but restrained himself before his finger twitch could develop into something more deadly. "What do you mean you 'don't know'-yoi?" he demanded in exasperation.

The old man shrugged as if he hadn't just led Marco on for five straight minutes. "No one tells us anythin'. I just know they didn' lock 'im up just for those two slaves. Kid's unhinged. He musta' done somethin' even them immoral celestials couldn' le' slide."

"Unhinged? Immoral? Those are some long words, old man. I'm proud," the younger man pitched in.

"Ye brat! They ain't long words and ya' know it!"

"For you? 'S like you're not even the same person."

"Say that to ma' face!"

"There's the stupid. Welcome back, old man."

Marco watched the two bicker with a frown.

* * *

"Kill him… he kills..."

"..killed…kill..."

"... _kill_ …"

Thatch let out a sigh as he struggled to open the door with many plates stacked on his arms. Thatch, Namur, and Marco have tried to shut down all the whispers but they've only managed to keep them out of the infirmary. Thatch still felt unsure about letting Luffy stay near anyone since they all seemed to hate his guts but there was nowhere else to move him. Having two ships definitely helped with the cramp issue but it wasn't like they were spread out enough to make a safe space for the boy. None of them wanted to just keep Luffy in the hull because that would be cruel. Thatch could only hope that Luffy didn't hear all the people wishing for his death.

After Thatch set the last of his plates down, he sat next to Luffy and watched as the boy devoured his dinner at the same speed he had with his lunch. Thatch was a little worried but the boy could stretch, so it shouldn't be that strange, right? Luffy handed the plate back to Thatch with a small hum and the older man gladly took it. The boy sat there pensively for a moment and Thatch couldn't take the tension any longer.

"What're you thinking about?"

Luffy sent Thatch an annoyed look before he grumbled, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"I can tell something is on your mind," Thatch replied with sympathetic eyes. "You know, if anything is bothering you, you can talk to me."

Luffy's face scrunched up at the suggestion and his eyes averted. "Yeah, like that could ever happen."

"Hit me."

The temperature in the room immediately dropped at Thatch's statement. Something akin to deep hurt flashed across Luffy's eyes before his jaw clenched and his fist connected with Thatch's bicep. Thatch hugged his arm to his chest with a yelp and he looked at the boy with eyes of pure betrayal. For such a scrawny little guy, he could sure pack a punch. "What was that for?" he whined as he rubbed the sore spot on his arm.

"I punched you," Luffy growled. "You told me to punch you so I did."

"I meant like figuratively!" Thatch clarified with a dramatic sniff. "You've never heard of it before?"

Thatch could tell he had said something that pulled Luffy's strings too much but he had no idea what. He didn't think he had done anything out of the ordinary but the boy's reaction suggested otherwise. He looked like he was trying to calculate the distance between himself and the nearest entrance to hell so he could swan dive into a pit of lava and erase himself from existence.

"I- No, I- You-" Luffy swallowed his breath before he pulled his blankets over his head and flopped over on his sheets. "Fucking whatever."

That was the end of the conversation.

* * *

There was a pair of scissors on the table. It was halfway across the room and the blade was dimly lit by moonlight but Luffy could still see it. He didn't know why it was there but something about it was pulling him in like a magnet. He reached out for his hat and placed it on his head before he dragged himself across the floor on his hands and knees. He sat down at the base of the table and reached up to grab the scissors. He wasn't exactly sure why he wanted them. Maybe to cut his hair. Or stab himself in the eye. But he wasn't in a dream though, so that would just be stupid.

"What're ya doin' with that?"

Luffy's head snapped around and he held the scissors out in defense. "Who-" His words died off when there was no one standing in the range of his blade. Everybody was still asleep. His breath caught in his throat and he forced himself to swallow it. There was no way he was still in a dream right? The pompadour guy proved it. Then again, Luffy hasn't been able to trust himself for a long time. Maybe he was tricked again. Maybe the shadows were still laughing at him for his stupid naivete, for believing he could ever actually escape. Maybe he should just stab himself and get it over with-

"Hey, down 'ere ya dumbass," the voice hissed.

Something smacked Luffy's ankle and his head jerked down to find the culprit. Sure enough, there was an older teen glaring up at him from his place in bed. Luffy turned his body around and squinted in order to get a better look. The teen held his gaze up until Luffy poked him in the cheek with scissors.

"The hell? Are ya' tryin' ta stab me or somethin'?"

Luffy blinked in surprise before he grabbed the teen's hand and squeezed it until his knuckles were white. The teen winced and tried to pull his hand away but it was futile. Luffy frowned and tugged the hand closer. The fingers were really boney and rough, probably like those calluses on that pompadour guy's hand. It wasn't cold like that fishman's though. Thin but warm.

Luffy hung his head with a relieved exhale. "You're real."

The teen seemed to take great offense to that. He recoiled from Luffy and shook his hand away. "Of course I'm real, ya weirdo! Are y' blind?" He scowled when Luffy didn't reply and whacked the smaller boy in the arm with the back of his hand. "What're ya' doin' with those scissors? Gonna kill everyone or what?"

"That's a thought," Luffy replied drily, "but no. I'm gonna… cut my hair."

The teen gave him a strange look. "In the middle a' the night without a mirror? You're lyin'," he accused.

 _I could stab you right now if you want, bitch_ , Luffy wanted to retort but that wouldn't help his case very much. He brought the scissors up to his bangs and chopped them off haphazardly, nearly taking out his working eye in the process. He watched as the strands of hair fluttered to the ground, some of them landing on the teen's face. The teen let out an indignant squawk as he brushed away the hair. However, it kept raining down as Luffy took his hat off and snipped all around his head. Once he was satisfied with the mild torment he caused, he dropped the scissors on top of the teen's chest and flipped him off.

The teen sat up to wipe all of the hair off. "Asshole," he growled. He turned to glare at Luffy but his sour mood suddenly melted away and he pointed at the smaller teen with a snicker. "Ya' look like shit."

Luffy blinked before he patted down his hair. His cheeks started to flush when he realized how uneven it was and he ducked his head to hide his face. He suddenly felt less great about his messily chopped bangs.

The teen ran a hand through his hair before he picked up the scissors that Luffy had thrown away. "Get over 'ere." He motioned for Luffy to scoot closer with a wave of his hand. Luffy scooted away. "What? I'm not gonna scalp ya!" he grumbled in frustration.

Luffy stuck out his tongue in defiance. "'In the middle of the night without a mirror? You're lying,'" he mocked and smirked happily when the teen's face scrunched up in annoyance.

Blankets rolled off the teen's body as he pushed himself onto his feet and reached for the table. He grabbed a simple oil lamp and a box of matches before sitting back down. Within seconds, their little corner of the room was softly lit by candlelight. Luffy found his smirk thrown right back at him.

"Come on, sit 'ere. Yer hard ta look at as it is," the teen teased. Or Luffy thought he was teasing.

"You're gonna kill me," Luffy deadpanned as he eyed the scissors suspiciously.

"Uh, no?" was the teen's not-so-intelligent reply. "Where the hell did ya get tha' from?"

A snarl built up in the back of Luffy's throat as his upper lip curled. "Everyone on this damn boat wants me dead," he spat. "They whisper all the time."

Silence followed Luffy's statement. The candlelight flickered but it stubbornly held its ground. The teen just stared at Luffy for a moment. "Well, maybe y' shouldn' assume everyone on this boat is as crazy as you," he replied softly. He shifted himself back a little to sit more comfortably on his sheets. "If I have ta tell ya ta get over 'ere one more time, I'm gonna kick yer ass."

Less than eagerly, Luffy sat down in front of the teen and crossed his arms. "You better not mess this up," he warned sinisterly.

"Maybe I should just shave ya an' be done with it."

"I'll kill you."

"Noted." The teen brought the scissors up to Luffy's hair and began snipping. "If y' cut yer hair any shorter I'd actually have ta shave you." Luffy sat in silence and watched the flame in the oil lamp dance back and forth to a silent rhythm. Things were weirdly quiet before the teen spoke again. "You were that guy stuck 'n solitary, right?"

Luffy's eyes narrowed and he chewed his lip. "What of it?"

"Yer kinda like an urban legend, y' know that?" the teen informed. "Everyone knows about ya. The old guys like ta talk about ya all the time. They say yer a monster." Luffy pursed his lips at that. "But y' don't seem like you'd kill someone."

 _Then you're new around here,_ Luffy wanted to say but he held his tongue.

"Turn around, I gotta cut those ugly bangs away." The teen grabbed Luffy by the shoulders and spun him around. He bit down on his lower lip in an attempt to reign in a laugh. "Changed my mind, the bangs c'n stay."

"Shut the fuck up."

"Okay, okay. Jeez."

They fell into silence again. Occasionally, the teen would motion for Luffy to turn his head a little and tell him to stop fidgeting but it was relatively quiet. Luffy didn't want to get comfortable though. He didn't like how peaceful the scene seemed. He averted his eyes back towards the light but it wasn't doing anything interesting anymore.

After a few more minutes of trimming, the teen exhaled and reached over to place the scissors back on the table. "Eh, it's better," he said with a shrug. "Now go ta bed an' stop messin' with scissors at night. Yer gonna murder someone."

"Whatever," Luffy responded as he took his eyes off the oil lamp to look at the teen. "We're not friends," he stated flatly. The two stared each other down before the teen yielded and lifted his arms up in surrender.

"Never said we were," he shot back.

The corner of Luffy's lip twitched but he tried to keep the frown off his face. "Good."

* * *

"Woah, nice hair cut," Thatch pointed out as he sat down next to Luffy. "When did that happen?"

The boy glared at him before he averted his eyes and conceded. "Someone cut it for me," he admitted a little begrudgingly. "It was too long." He dipped his head down in order to tug at his bangs anxiously as if he was terrified of judgment.

Thatch's eyes narrowed when he saw the large patch of discolored skin on Luffy's temple. He hadn't noticed it before but it was out in the open now that the boy's bangs were shorter. It looked like something had torn open his head and left the wound to heal on its own.

 _Something or someone,_ Thatch thought bitterly. _I'm not even surprised anymore. Those damn Celestial Dragons have probably committed every single atrocity ever known to man. Mutilating a poor kid means nothing to them. They're the real monsters, turning people into objects for their own satisfaction. Who even-_

"Anyway," Luffy's voice cut in, disrupting Thatch's inner monologue, "What do you want? Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?"

"Oh, uh…" The only reason Thatch was there was to try and get to know the boy better but Luffy didn't seem like he was in the mood to talk. _Is he ever?_ "Um, I wanted to see if you wanted to go outside. You know, get some fresh air or something?"

"The 'doctors' won't let me," Luffy mumbled. "They said I was bedridden, remember?"

Thatch let out a nervous chuckle. _Right, they did, didn't they._ "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Well, you'll get to see the outside when we meet up with Pops so it's not that bad." Thatch didn't like how he could feel Luffy's gaze bore into his soul. It never failed to give him the shivers.

"Whatever. I don't really care."

Thatch struggled to think of something to say. He's never been so lost on how to communicate with someone before. Even Ace was easier to talk to and Ace from back then would've jumped into the ocean rather than have a friendly conversation with someone. Even then, Thatch could've used the 'Hey, I just saved you from drowning so we totally have a lot to bond over' excuse. He had a feeling that wouldn't work with Luffy. It would probably just make everything worse. So there he was, sitting next to a kid who was probably creeped out because Thatch was pretty sure he just left the conversation hanging for an uncomfortable amount of time. Great.

"Uh… I should probably get going!" Thatch jumped up with a little too much enthusiasm and spun around towards the door. "Lots of stuff to do like make lunch, make breakfast, make dinner, uh, do the things and stuff. Hopefully, you can go outside soon!" He left the infirmary in a hurry feeling stiffer than ever. The moment he closed the door, he covered his face with his hands and let out a defeated groan. _How do I talk to you?_

* * *

Marco already predicted that the meeting with Pops would go terribly. Luffy was too unpredictable and angry. He was basically the human embodiment of a loose cannon. It's not like Luffy could do anything stupid physically since he could barely walk without falling. It was the kid's mouth that set Marco off. Pops would definitely be more sympathetic towards Luffy because of the circumstances but even he had his limits. There was no doubt in Marco's mind that Luffy would make it his life's mission to piss the Emperor off as much as possible.

That said, Marco's predictions were surprising wrong. Luffy definitely struggled and cursed Marco for life when the older man scooped him out of bed like a ragdoll but he immediately mellowed out once Marco kicked open the cabin door to reveal the outside world. From then on, he didn't open his mouth once, not even when Marco brought him onto the deck of the Moby Dick.

The deck was as lively as ever. His brothers and sisters were scattered left and right, most of them moving supplies and equipment down to the lower decks. As Marco carried Luffy over to Pops, the activity seemed to simmer down and people abandoned their jobs in favor of whispering and watching the kid Marco had in his arms.

 _Of course, they know. News spreads fast,_ Marco reasoned. Crewmembers had a right to know what was happening on their ship. However, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed with the attention.

Marco eventually set Luffy down when they reached Pops's chair. The kid stumbled a little but Marco caught him before he could fall over a pitchfork. Pops hadn't changed much, not that Marco really expected anything. He still had a giant bottle of whiskey in hand despite the nurses fussing over him and was attached to various tubes and IVs. There were weapons littered all around him, waiting to be cleaned and placed back in storage. Pops didn't look very pleased but seemed relieved to see Marco at the same time. Reasonable, considering the nature of Marco's return and the situation they were in.

"How was your trip, my son?"

Marco smiled a little. "I should've packed for seventy people-yoi."

"I'm sure you'll keep that in mind for next time," Pops replied with a little humor before his expression settled into one of melancholy. "I'm guessing this is Monkey D. Luffy."

Luffy, whose attention was fixed on the water up until then, perked up at the sound of his name but he didn't say anything. Marco glanced over at the kid only to see how wide his eye was. There was no telling what was going through his head. It was probably his first time outside in years. Marco mentally smacked himself for not bringing the kid outside sooner in order to get him at least a little acclimatized to it. However, the doctors insisted that he should stay in bed and Marco couldn't exactly argue with people more knowledgeable than himself.

Marco nudged Luffy's shoulder a little which didn't seem to knock him out of his trance. The older man frown and he pinched the kid's upper arm, which did the trick. Luffy scowled at him before he looked up at Pops with the most disinterested face in history.

"What."

' _What,' he says-yoi._ Marco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Luffy, this is our captain, Whitebeard-yoi. Since you're against seeing your grandfather, he's going to be deciding what to do-yoi."

"Oh," Luffy muttered with a shrug. "Great."

 _That's not a reassuring reaction-yoi!_ Marco internally groaned before he shook his head. Luffy's been through a lot, he shouldn't get irritated at the kid so easily. The aloofness was probably Luffy's own way of processing everything that was happening. "Pops, do you have any ideas-yoi?"

Pops hummed in thought before he set his whiskey bottle down on his armrest. "The New World is too dangerous. He shouldn't stay on this ship for too long. I'm having some of your other siblings find out where all the people you helped were originally from or where they want to go and we're going to send out some smaller ships to take them home," he explained before he turned his attention towards Luffy. "Do you have anywhere you'd like to go, child?"

Luffy blinked before he matched Pops's gaze with suspicion. "Where... I want to go?"

"That is correct."

"You'll take me there," Luffy continued incredulously. Marco's heart clenched when he heard the absolute distrust in the kid's voice. It was as if he believed they would just dump him on some random island and call it a day.

"We will," Pops assured firmly.

Luffy stiffened and stared at Pops with emotions too mixed to decipher. Marco could practically see the thoughts racing around in Luffy's head behind his eye. The kid chewed on his lip for a moment before he drew in a small breath. "I want to go to the Blues," he whispered. "Anywhere in the Blues. Just not in the East Blue or near any marines or nobles."

Pops nodded at the answer. "I'm sure that most of the boats are headed for the Blues. After you've healed, we'll take you to a safe island."

Luffy continued to stare at Pops for a solid ten seconds before he broke eye contact to look down at the deck. "Sure. Whatever."

That response was good enough for Pops. He sat back in his seat and grabbed his whiskey bottle again. "Marco, take Luffy to the infirmary. He looks like he needs rest." He took a swig of alcohol, prompting the nurses around him to either smack him for his blatant disregard for his health or shake their heads in disappointment.

Marco cracked a smile before he turned Luffy in the direction of the infirmary. "Can you walk?" Marco asked, causing Luffy to curl his lip.

"Just fine, pineapple-fuck," he snarled. He took a step forward and immediately tripped over a wooden handle. Marco reacted quickly, holding out his arm and catching the kid with ease. Luffy shot Marco a scalding glare before he steadied himself and looked forward. "I told you, I'm-" Luffy's voice faded as his eye focused on something in front of him. Marco followed his line of sight only to see Ace standing there as if he'd seen a ghost. Sabo was aggressively whispering in his ear but it didn't seem to get through to him.

Marco raised an eyebrow at Ace. "What's going on here-yoi?" He felt Luffy push away his arm but he kept most of his attention on the fire user.

Ace shook his head before he took a step forward. He opened his mouth but the words were caught in his throat. After a few seconds, Ace forced out, "I-I just… I needed to know if…"

Marco furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before he looked in Luffy's direction only to see that the kid was missing. His eyes darted back towards Ace just in time to see Luffy swing something down at the teen.

Luffy whacked Ace across the face with a pitchfork.

Ace nearly fell to the ground from the force of the swing but he managed to get his footing in time. Three long gashes marred his skin and blood poured out of the wounds freely. The strength spent on the attack left Luffy heaving and his arms were too shaky to maintain his grip on the pitchfork. It clattered against the ground as he fell forward onto his knees. Despite how drained he was, the raw and unbridled hatred in his eye burned brightly. Nothing else existed outside of Ace and his rage. He wrapped his hand around the pitchfork and pushed himself onto his feet in order to strike again but Marco grabbed him and twisted him around, acting as a physical barrier between him and his target. Ace remained unmoving as Sabo grabbed his face and examined it with obvious worry and panic.

"Holy shit, Ace! Why didn't you dodge, dumbass?" Despite Sabo's attempt to drag Ace towards the infirmary by the arm, they didn't get far at all. Ace's feet were firmly planted and his eyes glued to the ground.

Marco gritted his teeth as he looked down at Luffy. The kid had no energy to fight out of Marco's hold and Marco could hear how harshly Luffy's breath was becoming. There was no point in trying to protect Ace from someone who was now harmless. Marco was more worried about was Luffy might do to hurt himself if he let go. The look in the kid's eye was too wild for him to be completely there.

"Luffy, calm down-yoi," Marco hissed. His worries were proven right when Luffy didn't acknowledge him at all. The kid had a feral one track mind that left him severely tunnel-visioned. Marco shook Luffy a little and tried again. "Luffy, you have to calm down-yoi. Listen to my breathing-yoi."

Luffy's turned his head around and his eye shifted to look up a Marco. His eye was still too wide but his breathing was starting to become less haggard and devolved into something more human. Marco considered this an improvement and let out a relieved sigh. Luffy placed a hand around Marco's wrist and squeezed it. His voice came out at barely a whisper but the amount of airiness didn't stop Marco from hearing his words.

"Let him anywhere near me again and I'll kill him."

The kid's hand fell from his wrist and his heavy breathing began to even out. Even as his eyelids fell, the fire never left his irises. Marco had so many questions but they had to wait. Luffy had already slumped in his arms, dead to the world. The pitchfork laid bloody on the deck. Marco shifted the kid a little to the left before he hoisted him up in his arms.

Pops opened his mouth to say something, probably to keep Luffy restrained somewhere. The kid did attack one of his sons, after all. No matter the circumstances, Pops couldn't let something like that completely slide. However, Ace spoke up before he could get a sound in. "Forget about this, Pops," he muttered quietly.

Pops frowned at the request but he didn't question it. Instead, he made a different inquiry. "Ace, you could've avoided the attack entirely. Why didn't you?"

Ace refused to look Pops in the eye as he brought his forearm up to his face and wiped the blood away. "I deserved it."


End file.
